Monday, 6 April 2015
Of Import Mine Sweeper 1992
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The core game plays just like the Windows version with which most readers will be familiar, though without a mouse the interface is clunkier than the ideal. Each tile contains either a mine, or a number indicating how many mines are detected in the surrounding tiles. Theres some guesswork involved, and some deductive strategy, making for a simple but compelling one-more-time play experience. And the CD-Audio soundtrack of this version is rich and varied.
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This version justifies its retail existence by adding a couple of extra modes -- theres an Edit Mode allowing players to construct new puzzles, and two additional game modes:
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The Voyage moves the game to a more realistic environment, kicking off with a battleship sunk by enemy mines and adopting a different graphical style, replacing modern mines with old-fashioned explosive barrels and markers with skulls. This mode is broken up into missions, with a password system for retaining progress; failure on any mission means the game is over, but the levels are not randomized so its possible to win with patience and a good memory.
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The Cooks Quest mode features some rather bizarre imagery that looks very strange indeed to Western eyes. It stars a little cook, who appears to be trying to tunnel out of someplace, pursued by a slow-moving boulder. Instead of safely marking all the mines on the screen, our goal is to find a safe path through the minefield to the exit and the next room, as quickly as possible.
Whats strange is that the cook character resembles 1920s-vintage cartoon caricatures of African-Americans, right down to the "Wah!" sound he makes as the game begins and the boulder encroaches, except hes rendered in chalky whiteface:
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And... erm... when a mine is discovered, its portrayed as... a Star of David?!? Perhaps this mode is meant as some kind of metaphor about flour and unleavened bread, but I hesitate to speculate further. Japanese games of this era often featured insensitive racial and religious imagery, but usually the choices made sense from a certain perspective. This one leaves me speechless.
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Thats all there really is to say about Mine Sweeper. Its a competent version of a classic game, with some questionable visual choices that would certainly have been controversial if it had made it to North American shores. Fortunately, I think NEC realized that TurboGrafx-16 owners were not about to spend significant money on a game included free with Windows 3.1, and in this case were probably better off for it.
If you really must pay good money for a game whose most popular versions were free, you might be able to find a copy of this console port here.