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It’s all Greek to me
A fairly particular shmup launch has joined the ranks of Hamster’s Arcade Archives this week, as Namco’s mythological and controversial blaster Phelios is now out there to obtain on PS4 and Nintendo Change.
Launched to the Japanese arcade market in 1989, earlier than later being ported to the Sega Mega Drive, Phelios is a vertically-scrolling shmup that’s (very loosely) patterned after Greek mythology. Gamers don the mighty armor of the solar god Apollo, who mounts his mighty steed Pegasus and embarks upon a mission to rescue his spouse, Artemis, who has been kidnapped by the serpentine god, Typhon. Gamers information Apollo via seven famously difficult phases, taking over notable boss characters similar to Medusa, Antaeus, Cerberus, and The Sirens. Dusa would by no means.
Try the button-mashing motion within the video beneath, courtesy of YouTuber Replay Burners.
Whereas Phelios was an enormous success in its native Japan, it might, sadly, be not often seen exterior of its native territory. Very like Namco’s earlier Rolling Thunder, gamers have been greeted with photographs of the damsel, Artemis, chained and tortured between phases, which left Namco somewhat nervous about transport the title westward. Phelios can also be one of many more durable shmup titles of its day, with even commonplace enemies typically requiring a number of photographs to dispatch. With its sexual content material and excessive issue, Phelios wouldn’t turn out to be a mainstay of North America’s arcade facilities.
Nonetheless, it stays a genuinely powerful and fascinating title. And the now ultra-mild “sexual scenes”, together with the hilariously unfastened use of Greek mythology, (from Apollo driving Pegasus as a pet, to the usage of the famously heterosexual hunt goddess Artemis as his “princess spouse”), makes Phelios one of many extra attention-grabbing examples of the late-’80s shmup style.
Phelios is out there to obtain now on PS4 and Ninetndo Change, priced at round $8.
Chris Moyse
Senior Editor – Chris has been enjoying video video games because the Nineteen Eighties and writing about them because the Eighteen Eighties. Graduated from Galaxy Excessive with honors. Twitter: @ChrisxMoyse
