Andro Dunos (1992)

Game: Andro Dunos

Time to complete: 80min

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Difficulty:8

Fun:5

Rating on a 1-10 scale

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Here is a title that I was not aware of till well into my adulthood. Fortunately my brother-in-law owns the AES cart so onto the review! Andro Dunos is made by Visco, one of those studios that I believe were part of SNK and only developed games for their platforms. In any event it's a side scrolling shooter that has subtle R-Type game play elements. Visually it's one of those games that does not necessarily feel like a Neo Geo game. Not that it's not bad looking, it's just different. One of the most unique aspects of the visuals are the variety of levels. They really went out of their way to make each level look like its from a different game. One level your in a super tech landscape with spaceships and what not, and then all of a suden, on the next level, its totally biological without a hint of technology. It's a bit odd, but it works with the story line. Did I mention there is no story line? Like none at all? Just wait for the ending!!!


Difficulty wise this is not a easy game. We started playing on AES mode but quickly switched over to  MVS. Finishing this title on the 4 credits the AES mode allots is just crazy talk. My brother-in-law and I must have gone through 40+ credits each. The game does control nicely overall. You are given 4 stock weapons that you can upgraded with power-ups, which can be cool, but in this case you never really need to switch between them like you would in something like Radient Slivergun. The level design in Andro Dunos is very pattern dependent. They do some cool things with having to dodge moving blocks and what not which are fairly unique.


Overall I would play this game again some day but when compared to Last Resort and Pulstar it's hard to compete.