Arrow Flash (World) - アローフラッシュ
Arrow Flash is a horizontal scrolling shooter video game developed by Sega and released by Renovation Products in the US (and by Sega in Japan and Europe) in 1990 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Main character Zana Keene (Anna Schwinn in the European release) commandeers a prototype transformable fighter-mecha left from her grandfather to fight against an alien attack force known as the Great Golems attacking humankind. The game is mostly a horizontal shooter, with one down scrolling stage and one stage with a diagonal scrolling background, although the ship does not change orientation when this happens.
Like many scrolling shooters, the player initially has a basic shot, which can be upgraded and/or exchanged for different weapons, as well as gain smaller ships that follow the player's ship around and copy its attacks. As is usual, these powerups are distributed throughout the levels, and are lost entirely when the player loses a life.
Two additional mechanics differentiate Arrow Flash from similar scrolling shooters, one of which is that the ability to transform the player's ship. The two forms available are a humanoid mecha form and a typical jet form. The player's weapons change depending on the form. The jet form only shoots forward but intensely, while the mecha form can fire diagonally and sometimes even from the back; helper ships mimic the jet's actions but stay in a fixed formation behind the mecha. The jet form is also faster than the mecha, but both can be killed by only one hit unless the player picks up an energy shield which can sustain three hits. The game's titular "Arrow Flash" is a highly powerful attack for each form; the jet fires five large blasts forward, while the mecha form becomes engulfed in flame, rendering it immune to attack for a short while. Depending on the options set at the start of the game, arrow flashes are either required to be charged up with unlimited use or collected out on the field with no charge time.
The game starts you off with only a basic machine gun like weapon. There are three more weapons (named I, II and III) available to find and upgrade.
Weapon I
A blue arrow shot that does moderate damage
A yellow arrow shot that fires faster than weapon I but does less damage
A very slow firing weapon that does massive damage
Like many scrolling shooters, the player initially has a basic shot, which can be upgraded and/or exchanged for different weapons, as well as gain smaller ships that follow the player's ship around and copy its attacks. As is usual, these powerups are distributed throughout the levels, and are lost entirely when the player loses a life.
Two additional mechanics differentiate Arrow Flash from similar scrolling shooters, one of which is that the ability to transform the player's ship. The two forms available are a humanoid mecha form and a typical jet form. The player's weapons change depending on the form. The jet form only shoots forward but intensely, while the mecha form can fire diagonally and sometimes even from the back; helper ships mimic the jet's actions but stay in a fixed formation behind the mecha. The jet form is also faster than the mecha, but both can be killed by only one hit unless the player picks up an energy shield which can sustain three hits. The game's titular "Arrow Flash" is a highly powerful attack for each form; the jet fires five large blasts forward, while the mecha form becomes engulfed in flame, rendering it immune to attack for a short while. Depending on the options set at the start of the game, arrow flashes are either required to be charged up with unlimited use or collected out on the field with no charge time.
Weapons
The game starts you off with only a basic machine gun like weapon. There are three more weapons (named I, II and III) available to find and upgrade.
Weapon I
A blue arrow shot that does moderate damage
- (level 1) - basic weapon
- (level 2) - a second shot is added but the shots fired now travel slower.
- (level 3, jet) - rate of fire increases, helper ships gain level 1 weapon
- (level 3, mecha) - helper ships gain level 1 weapon, if no helper ships were acquired two shots are fired behind
A yellow arrow shot that fires faster than weapon I but does less damage
- (level 1, jet) - basic weapon
- (level 1, mecha) - a second shot is added, but slower fire rate
- (level 2, jet) - a seconnd shot is added, same fire rate
- (level 2, mecha) - three-way shot (one straight, two diagonal)
- (level 3, jet) - a third shot is added (all three are fired forward), helper ships gain level 1 weapon
- (level 3, mecha) - helper ships gain level 1 weapon, if no helper ships were acquired two shots are fired behind
A very slow firing weapon that does massive damage
- (level 1) - basic weapon
- (level 2) - more damage is inflicted
- (level 3) - helper ships gain a similar weapon (but not as powerful as level 1)
Arrow Flash (World)
Technical
CPU
- maincpu 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
- genesis_snd_z80 Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
Chipset
- YM2612 (@ 7 Mhz)
- SEGA VDP PSG (@ 3 Mhz)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 224
- Frequency 60 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 4
- Number of buttons 7
- Kind of controler joy (8 ways)
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Arrow Flash (World) Screenshots
Clones of Arrow Flash (World)
Trivia
- Arrow Flash's third weapon is actually the "Red Weapon" from the first R-type game. (aka. Fire Chain), looks like the "snakey" charged shot from Megaman X´s upgraded gun
- The game has a few references to Gundam. In the 5th stage, robots looking like upper half of Jegan can be seen as enemies. Also the name "RMS-106" can be seen at the ending credits. RMS-106 is the model number of Mobile Suit Hi-Zack. Another reference is that in the intro movie, the pilot resembles Kamille Bidan from mobile suit Zeta Gundam.
- The game also has references to Macross. In the intro movie, the ship is launched through a docking bay similar to the ones used in the anime.
