Imagine Musou/Dynasty Warriors with pixelated monsters. Consider each level as a quest to protect a princess. What if a princess lived in a tank castle? Wouldn’t it be cool if that castle tank was on a railroad, heading towards an enemy castle? Now you know what Gotta Protectors is all about. Let’s backtrack a bit. Yuzo Koshiro has a games company. His mom, Tomo, and sister, Ayano, started Ancient in the early 90s.
There are a lot of barricades on the map that you can attack. What’s the point of attacking barricades? If you hit them, they heal. Attacking is also defensive. One little attack button does a lot. Taking out all the enemies, hitting the barricades to keep more from charging into your territory, and yet there’s more to do. A good kill streak is rewarded by Princess Lola. Like modern Doom, weaker enemies can be used to keep your kill streak going, for which a super move is the reward.
On the map, you see a powerful enemy. As you rush through the weaker enemies, you keep your streak going, while also hitting the barricades. After you get your super move, you can use it on that powerful enemy. Could there be two powerful enemies somewhere else on the map that super move could help you obliterate? There could be a bunch of enemies nearing the princess, and you can clearly see a lot of weaker enemies on their way to the stronger enemies. Are you using it now or keeping it? Oh my gosh! You can also heal your health and magic if you’re near the castle, so maybe a little detour will help. Gameplay in Cart of Darkness is so fast-paced, it’s often dizzying – and that’s without factoring in the various skills, switching characters, enemies, and innovative levels.
You get to choose 3 characters from an assortment of eight, including a nudist ninja, a pudgy Amazon warrior, a geriatric knight, and more. You can also customize them with interesting skills. Carry moves barricades, turrets, and the Princess, while the geriatric knight has a heat-seeking missile called Geezaton. It’s fun to experiment with new skills you buy from the shop. In the tutorial, you’ll see keys, railroad switches, and teleporting doors, so tailoring your characters and skills is important.
One mission takes around 20-30 minutes to complete, and you can’t save until you’re done. A mission has four levels and a power-up system between them. Gold powers your skills, stats, barricades, and the Princess, which resets every mission. You can customize it based on the mission. With gold you can be stingy and save as much as you can, or use all of it and power yourself up. You’ll get better rewards later if you spend gold early.
It’s fun, inventive, and full of personality. There’s also a toilet break pause option where you can look at vintage game magazine imagery – and oh, how can I forget the 900+ parody NES cartridges to collect and equip? It’s a dizzying, pixelated explosion that takes a lot out of you. Retro gaming without feeling like a pastiche.
