Taito Legends -- Day Three.

Great Swordsman was released in 1984 and it's easily one of the most original and interesting arcade games ever made. You're out to prove yourself the greatest swordsman ever through three sword fighting styles. The game takes itself very seriously. It actually tries its best to make you try to win the battle with skill over just traditional video game hack and slash. You will face three opponents within each style. All three styles have the same controls. You can move left and right to make your character advance or retreat. You have a high attack, a mid attack, and a low attack.  You can block an incoming attack by meeting it with the same attack. In other words, block an incoming high attack with a high attack and block an incoming low attack with a low attack. For the first style of fencing, you'll be going for the first one to reach five points.  Each successive opponent will be harder. Each becoming more aggressive. After you make it through the fencing section, you'll go to the bonus round, where you'll have to deflect an archer's shots with the correct attack type. Miss one and you fail. After the bonus round comes kendo where you'll be going for the first one to reach two points. Defeat the three kendo fighters and you're off to the bonus round again. The final style is Roman gladiatorial where it's one hit kills. Defeat the three gladiators to win the game. Although the game is essentially an action version of Paper, Scissors, Rock, it's actually very well done and fun.

In 1985 Taito released the second sequel to Space Invaders called Return of the Invaders. This time they went all out with animation and color. They added backgrounds, went crazy with the aliens' attack patterns, made the shields move, and even allowed you to power up your tank.  They essentially added what everyone else had to their clones in the last five years since we'd seen the Invaders. It's still the same core gameplay that they pioneered. Shoot them before they shoot you and avoid everything.  More of the same, at a time when the world had moved on. Cool little footnote in gaming to own though.

Another true classic was released in 1986 and it was called Bubble Bobble. The game has you playing as one of two guys who have been turned into exceedingly cute little dinosaurs. You're out to save your girlfriends of course. To do that you'll have to go through the game's one-hundred levels. You can jump, and you can shoot bubbles out of your mouth. Hitting an enemy makes him float away. Jumping on an enemy with a bubble destroys it and makes bonus point laden fruit appear. You need to capture and then pop all the creatures within your bubbles. There aren't any platforming deaths in the game as if you fall out the bottom of the stage you'll fall back in through the top. It's this ease of play that makes the game such a success. You didn't need to be great to get anywhere. The game allowed anyone to feel like they've accomplished something. The game offered up cooperative play. It wasn't the first, but it was the first to truly reward you for it. You could only see the true ending by completing the one-hundred levels with another player. Still has catchy music. Still fast and fun. I would really like to see this come to Xbox Live Arcade. I'd buy it.

In 1986 Taito released Gladiator. The game offers up the Great Swordsman gameplay of a high, mid, and low attack, but adds in a shield that you can control to those three positions independently of your sword strikes. This would have been great if they had kept it to one-on-one fighting like Great Swordsman. Instead, they turned it into an action title. You'll be moving to your right and have to kill bats knock darts and other projectiles out of the air. You'll then reach a boss battle. He'll have your three sword strikes and a shield of his own. It's not the one hit kills stuff anymore from Great Swordsman's gladiator levels. You have armor which can be damaged and knocked off exposing your flesh. Strikes to exposed flesh are fatal. The concept is great, but the problem is the animation is too stiff and there is a great disconnected feeling to it all in the controls. This game would be expanded and later released on the Genesis as Sword of Sodan. I didn't like it then either. This one is unfortunately a total dud.