(Originally posted on December, 2017)
(1992, Neo Geo)
Last Resort is an early Neo Geo title I’ve long known of, but never had the chance to try out. My first experience with the hardware revolved around a crimson cabinet housing the quartet of Sengoku, King of the Monsters, World Heroes and Fatal Fury 2. As the years passed, all around I would see the likes of Samurai Shodown, Puzzle Bobble and more, but nothing in the way of this particular horizontal shoot-em-up. Last Resort’s reissuing on the Nintendo Switch eShop ignited a renewed interest towards this title I’ve frequently seen mentioned on message boards and referenced in perhaps my most engrossing SNK purchase, Card Fighter’s Clash for the Neo Geo Pocket. This long forgotten shooter and a few other games finally got me to pick up a cheap Wii copy of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1. While I was never truly dying to discover the game inside of a Neo Geo cabinet…as someone always overjoyed to spot the red woodworking that’s as bountiful as Santa’s sleigh, I say any of SNK’s arcade titles are worth a shot.
Said to be heavily based off IREM’s R-Type (Which I’m unfamiliar with beyond my failed attempts to take out the iconic orange alien of level 1), Last Resort appears as a rather indistinguishable shooter progressing through Earth’s super-advanced (or devastated) cities, lonely enemy strongholds and eventually into outer space. Unapologetically an arcade game designed to steal your quarters, you’re barely given a second to breathe as each level is packed with robots and occasional bizarre life forms to take down. The game’s most notable feature is your ship’s satellite orb, which fires off in the opposite direction you last moved the joystick. While initially overwhelming to operate both guns at once, after some time it’s of great joy to gain a degree of sub-conscious mastery over them. Before long, you’ll automatically begin strategizing how to best make use of multiple fire angles during the rare moments of down time. The possibilities are made even more intricate with shot charging, multiple power ups and the ability to lock the orb in place. You’ll certainly need to learn all these skills if you hope to save the earth, as the handful of checkpoints per level combined with the density of hazards swarming your awkwardly long ship makes for a very tough completion, even with unlimited continues.
Already not recommended for beginners due to its demanding control system and high difficulty, Last Resort commits an even bigger flaw in failing to compete against whatever else might be clamoring for attention at the arcade (or even in your home collection). While the coloring and amount of action was technically impressive for 1992, there was still little of interest to view. Yes, the first stage is indeed an eye catching roller coaster ride. Immediately battling along the highways of an enormous city dancing in exciting orange and purple hues, you’ll soon fight through traffic tunnels lit by floodlights and unfortunate commuter cars, finally exiting to the scene of an eerie, massive crater…where your biggest threat yet awaits. What’s the problem? All these backdrops were so obviously lifted from the famous anime “Akira,” that one would hope the original artists were offered some Neo Geo home systems and hefty (in both size and price) cartridges to call their own. Driving this suspicion of plagiary even further, the flooded city and underground caverns which follow are some of the blandest stages ever seen in a shooter. The opposing (yet still dull) factory of Stage 4 is saved by perhaps the best music in the game; starting off with a hopeless, somber tone that seamlessly transitions into a heroic optimism. A sense of real excitement finally explodes as you take off into outer space, where you’ll slowly disable a giant warship and break up encroaching asteroids as thousands of stars whiz by in the distance. With victory in your grasp after so many retries, the music is once again appropriately heroic and intense with all sorts of instruments given a moment to lead the cheer. Most of the game’s boss fights tend to be some sort of large robot, none of them particularly memorable aside from the very final battle. What waits at the end is a huge flying cavern of cable, armor and weapons so convincingly tied together like entrails, you’ll literally be distracted to death trying to discern what’s alloy and what’s alien.
While Last Resort is not at all a poor game, the combination of uninspired (or overly so!) set designs, back loading of quality music, highly demanding mechanics, heavy bullet/enemy counts and stingy checkpoints will send most players elsewhere. If third party developers weren’t willing to produce enough shooters for the ambitious Neo Geo hardware early on, of course it was up to SNK to cover the spread themselves. This effort, at least, proved they were far better off honing their talents within the 2D fighter, action and arcade sports genres. You can’t fault the game for being aptly named. If you aren’t an already highly decorated make-believe aerospace fighter, this is indeed a “Last Resort” among the Neo Geo’s otherwise accessible catalog.
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