This week, Fruitbat looks at an often-overlooked Megadrive classic
Ask any gamer what Treasure are famous for and ten times out of ten the words 'Gunstar Heroes' will be the first thing to come out of their mouths. It's still being re-released on all three current gen consoles, and rightly so; Treasure's first game blended platforming and arcade shooting perfectly, and has aged surprisingly little over the years.
Gunstar Heroes exploded on to the scene with passion and style, so it's easy to see why Dynamite Headdy tends to get overlooked. It isn't that the game doesn't get any recognition, but any acknowledgement of it always ends in '...but I thought Gunstar Heroes was better'. Maybe it is in certain ways, but the two are very different beasts, and as tightly made as Gunstar Heroes is, it simply can't hold a candle to the sheer madcap inventiveness and baffling uniqueness of Headdy's adventure.
From the very beginning the game establishes that all the world is quite literally a stage, with a spotlight serving as your health meter and levels frequently composed of ill-matching panels full of fabric tears and obstacles supported on wires or gantries; the most transparent is Backstage Battle, where frequent annoyance Trouble Bruin drags you behind the previous stage and spends several frantic minutes smashing you against the floor and ceiling, dislodging props and tools.
Headdy is a game very much in the same visual vein as LittleBigPlanet, in that it revels in the cutesy, slapdash, rickety nature of its design and uses it an excuse to go utterly bananas in the material it presents you; miniature workers can be seen scurrying in the background dragging on new props and stage elements, and the stage 2 boss is framed by a full-scale human orchestra who physically play the music that accompanies the fight. It's a rare game that can combine intense action with aching whimsy, and Treasure were smart enough to wring every drop of creativity that such a set-up affords.
While the controls are technically the same throughout the adventure (bar an excellent flying stage later in the game), there are very few levels that you could call traditional, or even consistently similar. After a relatively sane opening stage, you're hit with rotating platforms that force you to not only move in three dimensions but also combat constantly shifting ground, followed by a boss battle that almost entirely limits your movement and finds you relying solely on your targeting skills. Other than bosses, it's a rare stage that involves standard left-to-right, up-and-down platforming without throwing in a new gimmick for you to play with, from switches that flip the level upside down to an ever-moving tower stage.
And speaking of bosses, Dynamite Headdy features a plethora of challenging and distinctive villains. Early stages see a wooden mannequin whose attacks change based on the costume he dons, and requires you to break it apart piece by piece; later on you battle a face on legs whose expression and stomping pace change based on what side up you flip the level, and throughout the game you're challenged by Trouble Bruin, a toy bear who puts Toy Story 3's Lotso to shame in terms of sheer determined villainy. He transplants his head between a variety of machines, including a walking battle-tank and a flying machine that whisks away whole sections of the tower you're climbing, making him a versatile foe who quite literally uses his head to defeat you.
The absolute highlight of the boss panoply, however, is Baby Face; at the end of the flying stage you're presented with a baby's face on a stick, who floats around burping slow-moving fireballs. The surprise comes when you knock down his health meter and the face splits and breaks to reveal a smaller, adult head underneath, with brand new attacks. The process repeats with a middle-aged head, then an elderly one; you're powerless to stop his hand from bursting into view and grabbing you, but as all hope seems lost, the music fades, and the emaciated head gives a grandfatherly chuckle (sort of; you have to use your imagination a little bit with these old consoles). Then he closes his eyes, a tiny ghost flies away, and the boss dies (in a firework display of explosions, of course). It's such a simple idea, yet one that works fantastically well, and is even played with a touch of poignancy come the finish.
And all this is before I've even touched on the central concept of the game, namely the interchangeable heads of the eponymous Headdy. You attack by firing his head in eight directions, and while his body can be hurt, his head can't; the two-part nature of his body is played upon several times, such as the Green Room boss whose whip whisks your head away, and the Nasty Gatekeeper whose arm delivers a devastating punch combo to Headdy's noggin, requiring measure head bops to send his fist sailing through thin air. In addition to this, throughout the game you'll find Headcase, who allows you to swap your regular head with a specialist one for a short while, and it is here that the flexibility of Headdy's design makes itself apparent.
Only a few heads are on offer at a time, meaning that a vast range can be employed throughout the game while still allowing Treasure to tightly control the possibilities during each set-piece; heads range from the extra-strong Hammerhead to a spiked bonce that allows you to pull yourself up walls and ceilings, as well as a shrinking head, a time-stopper, a fizzing bomb, a triple-head, and even a night-cap that sends Headdy to sleep to recover health. It's a tidy little system, and one that rears its head often enough to be a regular gameplay feature while still keeping control firmly in the hands of the developers.
It's a shame that a sequel hasn't reared its head, as Headdy has great potential as a mixture of linear and sandbox platforming. But with Guardian Heroes HD appearing on XBLA, there's always the possibility of Headdy receiving a modern update. With a simple concept resulting in complex yet focused scenarios and a unique visual style that is very much its own, Dynamite Headdy holds up remarkably well in the modern age, and exudes personality from every pore. Available for download on the Wii Virtual Console, it is worth the asking price five times over, and ably demonstrates that vitality, enthusiasm and originality are ideas that can lift a game beyond any technical obsolescence.
Gunstar Heroes exploded on to the scene with passion and style, so it's easy to see why Dynamite Headdy tends to get overlooked. It isn't that the game doesn't get any recognition, but any acknowledgement of it always ends in '...but I thought Gunstar Heroes was better'. Maybe it is in certain ways, but the two are very different beasts, and as tightly made as Gunstar Heroes is, it simply can't hold a candle to the sheer madcap inventiveness and baffling uniqueness of Headdy's adventure.
From the very beginning the game establishes that all the world is quite literally a stage, with a spotlight serving as your health meter and levels frequently composed of ill-matching panels full of fabric tears and obstacles supported on wires or gantries; the most transparent is Backstage Battle, where frequent annoyance Trouble Bruin drags you behind the previous stage and spends several frantic minutes smashing you against the floor and ceiling, dislodging props and tools.
Headdy is a game very much in the same visual vein as LittleBigPlanet, in that it revels in the cutesy, slapdash, rickety nature of its design and uses it an excuse to go utterly bananas in the material it presents you; miniature workers can be seen scurrying in the background dragging on new props and stage elements, and the stage 2 boss is framed by a full-scale human orchestra who physically play the music that accompanies the fight. It's a rare game that can combine intense action with aching whimsy, and Treasure were smart enough to wring every drop of creativity that such a set-up affords.
While the controls are technically the same throughout the adventure (bar an excellent flying stage later in the game), there are very few levels that you could call traditional, or even consistently similar. After a relatively sane opening stage, you're hit with rotating platforms that force you to not only move in three dimensions but also combat constantly shifting ground, followed by a boss battle that almost entirely limits your movement and finds you relying solely on your targeting skills. Other than bosses, it's a rare stage that involves standard left-to-right, up-and-down platforming without throwing in a new gimmick for you to play with, from switches that flip the level upside down to an ever-moving tower stage.
And speaking of bosses, Dynamite Headdy features a plethora of challenging and distinctive villains. Early stages see a wooden mannequin whose attacks change based on the costume he dons, and requires you to break it apart piece by piece; later on you battle a face on legs whose expression and stomping pace change based on what side up you flip the level, and throughout the game you're challenged by Trouble Bruin, a toy bear who puts Toy Story 3's Lotso to shame in terms of sheer determined villainy. He transplants his head between a variety of machines, including a walking battle-tank and a flying machine that whisks away whole sections of the tower you're climbing, making him a versatile foe who quite literally uses his head to defeat you.
The absolute highlight of the boss panoply, however, is Baby Face; at the end of the flying stage you're presented with a baby's face on a stick, who floats around burping slow-moving fireballs. The surprise comes when you knock down his health meter and the face splits and breaks to reveal a smaller, adult head underneath, with brand new attacks. The process repeats with a middle-aged head, then an elderly one; you're powerless to stop his hand from bursting into view and grabbing you, but as all hope seems lost, the music fades, and the emaciated head gives a grandfatherly chuckle (sort of; you have to use your imagination a little bit with these old consoles). Then he closes his eyes, a tiny ghost flies away, and the boss dies (in a firework display of explosions, of course). It's such a simple idea, yet one that works fantastically well, and is even played with a touch of poignancy come the finish.
And all this is before I've even touched on the central concept of the game, namely the interchangeable heads of the eponymous Headdy. You attack by firing his head in eight directions, and while his body can be hurt, his head can't; the two-part nature of his body is played upon several times, such as the Green Room boss whose whip whisks your head away, and the Nasty Gatekeeper whose arm delivers a devastating punch combo to Headdy's noggin, requiring measure head bops to send his fist sailing through thin air. In addition to this, throughout the game you'll find Headcase, who allows you to swap your regular head with a specialist one for a short while, and it is here that the flexibility of Headdy's design makes itself apparent.
Only a few heads are on offer at a time, meaning that a vast range can be employed throughout the game while still allowing Treasure to tightly control the possibilities during each set-piece; heads range from the extra-strong Hammerhead to a spiked bonce that allows you to pull yourself up walls and ceilings, as well as a shrinking head, a time-stopper, a fizzing bomb, a triple-head, and even a night-cap that sends Headdy to sleep to recover health. It's a tidy little system, and one that rears its head often enough to be a regular gameplay feature while still keeping control firmly in the hands of the developers.
It's a shame that a sequel hasn't reared its head, as Headdy has great potential as a mixture of linear and sandbox platforming. But with Guardian Heroes HD appearing on XBLA, there's always the possibility of Headdy receiving a modern update. With a simple concept resulting in complex yet focused scenarios and a unique visual style that is very much its own, Dynamite Headdy holds up remarkably well in the modern age, and exudes personality from every pore. Available for download on the Wii Virtual Console, it is worth the asking price five times over, and ably demonstrates that vitality, enthusiasm and originality are ideas that can lift a game beyond any technical obsolescence.
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