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Recca

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This article is about the video game. For the lead character of the Flame of Recca anime/manga series, see Recca Hanabishi.
Recca
Developer(s)KID
Publisher(s)Naxat Soft
Programmer(s)Shinobu Yagawa
Composer(s)Nobuyuki Shioda
Platform(s)Family Computer
Release
  • JP: July 17, 1992
Genre(s)Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Single-player

Recca[a] is a 1992 scrolling shooter video game developed by KID and published by Naxat Soft for the Family Computer (Also known as the NES in the United States and Europe). Controlling the titular space fighter craft, the player is sent to counterattack an invading alien armada while avoiding collision with their projectiles and other obstacles. The ship has a powerful bomb at its disposal that can be used as shield and clear the screen of enemies and bullets when fully charged.

Known for pushing the Famicom hardware to the limits with its uncompromising high number of sprites and speed, Recca was created for a shooting game competition hosted by Naxat Soft called "Summer Carnival", which took place on July 17, 1992 and featured alongside the PC Engine CD-ROM² shooter Alzadick. It was programmed by Shinobu Yagawa, whose later works includes Battle Garegga, Ibara, Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara and Muchi Muchi Pork!. The game was released in Japan amid focus shifting to the Super Famicom, resulting in few copies sold when released to the market and is considered by gaming journalists as one of the rarest, most valuable and sought-after Famicom titles.

Recca received mostly positive reception from critics for pushing the Famicom to its limits; praise was given to its action, game modes, music and fun factor but criticism was geared towards the unsuitable difficulty for beginners and graphics. It was re-released worldwide on the 3DS Virtual Console via Nintendo eShop in 2012 and 2013, marking the game's first international appearance. Retrospective commentary has been positive and is regarded as a precursor to modern bullet hell games.

Gameplay

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Gameplay screenshot of the second stage

Recca is a fast-paced vertical-scrolling shooter game where the player takes control of the Recca415 space fighter craft in the year 2302, where an invading alien armada plans to destroy mankind after obliterating the Andromeda galaxy shortly after humans made a peace agreement with its inhabitants.[2][3][4] The game features three modes of play: "Normal Game", "Score Attack" and "Time Attack".[3][4] A fourth game mode, "Zanki Attack", is hidden and only accessible via cheat code.[2]

In normal mode, the player must destroy incoming enemies and face bosses while avoiding collision with their bullets and other obstacles across four stages.[2][3][4] The Recca ship can be equipped with five distinct main weapons, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the ship can also be equipped with two satellite-like options by collecting five sub-weapons that fire in multiple directions. These power-up items are dropped from enemies after being destroyed and can be upgraded by collecting the respective weapon icon. Enemies also spawn 1UPs after destroying multiple enemy waves.[2][3][4] Unique to the game is the charging shield: when not firing the main weapon for a brief time period, an energy shield is charged in front of the ship capable of absorbing standard enemy projectiles and obliterate any enemy caught within its blast radius when launched.[2][3][4] Finishing the first loop in normal mode unlocks a more difficult second loop, consisting of seven rearranged stages.[2]

In score attack, the player is tasked with reaching the highest score possible by destroying enemies within a two-minute time limit.[3][4] In time attack, the player is tasked with finishing two stages in the best record possible under a five-minute time limit.[3][4] In "Zanki Attack", players are given fifty lives but enemies spawn suicide bullets when destroyed, with bonus points given out after finishing the game with the remaining lives.[2][5] Getting hit by enemy fire or colliding against solid stage obstacles will result in losing a life, with a penalty of decreasing the ship's firepower to its original state and once all lives are lost, the game is over.[2]

Development

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Recca was created by KID, a contract developer who worked on American-focused games for Taxan, for a shooting game competition hosted by Naxat Soft called "Summer Carnival", which took place on July 17, 1992 and featured alongside the PC Engine CD-ROM² shooter Alzadick.[1][2][6][7][8][9] The game was programmed Shinobu Yagawa, whose later works at Raizing and Cave includes Battle Garegga, Ibara, Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara and Muchi Muchi Pork!.[2][10][11] The visuals were drawn by a graphic designer only known by the pseudonym of "Etsuka" and the music was composed by Nobuyuki Shioda.[7]

Shioda met Yagawa when assigned to compose songs for Recca, who requested him to score music that lasted four minutes, as Yagawa claimed they could make what they wanted for sound and "do the impossible on the Famicom."[7] Shioda thought that four-on-the-floor dance music would fit for a shoot 'em up and stated that he first tried composing eurobeat music, which did not fit.[7] Wanting a dark and heavy sound for the game's hardcore techno-style atmosphere, Shioda listened to various CD albums for inspiration and Yagawa also lent him other albums, one of which was detroit techno but he could not find sample materials for his work at the time, relying on Ryuichi Sakamoto's B-2 Unit album and recordings of Igor Stravinsky instead.[7] For the musical style he wanted for the title, Shioda turned down the volume on the Famicom's two square wave channels to make low-end triangle wave sounds louder.[7] Shioda also composed three "joke" songs for the sound test screen after being showed the image of a character called "Recca-chan" drawn by Etsuka during development.[7]

Recca is known for pushing the Famicom hardware to the limits due to its uncompromising high number of sprites and speed.[10][12][13] The game uses a technique similar to Contra, where sprite effects such as explosions are shown at 30 frames per second (fps) instead of 60 fps to work around the system's sprite limitations.[14] Due to the amount of memory available on the cartridge, Shioda claimed that Yagawa was able to implement features such as the second loop and the boss sprite shown after the credits sequence for fun.[7]

Release

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Recca was released for the Family Computer in Japan by Naxat Soft on July 17, 1992 during the "Summer Carnival" competition and in retail stores.[1][2][8][15] Its late 1992 launch when focus was already on the Famicom's successor, the Super Famicom, coupled with few copies sold and reputation, makes the game harder to find and more expensive than earlier Famicom releases, becoming a rare collector's item that commands high prices on the secondary game collecting market.[2][7][10][16] On September 21, 2005, an album featuring the game's music titled Legend Consumer Series - Summer Carnival '92 Recca Original Soundtrack was published in Japan by Scitron.[7][12]

Recca was later re-released on the 3DS Virtual Console via Nintendo eShop in Japan on December 12, 2012.[17] It was also released in PAL regions and North America on the Nintendo eShop on August 15 and September 5, 2013 respectively, marking the game's first international appearance.[2][18]

Reception

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Recca received mostly positive reception from critics.[24] However, public response was mixed; Japanese readers of Family Computer Magazine voted to give the title a 16.8 out of 30 score, indicating a middling following among the Famicom userbase.[25] According to composer Nobuyuki Shioda, the game did not sell many copies during its release.[7]

Famitsu's four reviewers commented that Recca is unsuitable for beginners and that there are too many onscreen objects to track—criticizing the graphics but praising the music.[15] Brømba of Polish gaming magazine Top Secret gave the game a perfect rating in 1994, praising the fun factor, dynamic action, game modes, colorful visuals, and digitized soundtrack, regarding it as "one of the best in its class".[22] A writer for Japanese magazine Yuge gave the title positive remarks for pushing the Famicom hardware, stating that "The pleasure of destroying enemies that are constantly attacking shifts to a feeling of ecstasy."[23]

Retrospective reviews for Recca have been equally positive.[5][6][26] Play's Dai Kohama praised the game's technical details for pushing the Famicom far beyond what would seem to be possible on the system, with high quality music and effects as well.[12] Nintendo Life's Marcel van Duyn commented that "it's hard to recommend Recca to anybody but the most die-hard fans of the genre. Despite this, however, it is easily one of best and most impressive shoot 'em up games made for the system, and anybody who isn't afraid of a challenge (or using save states a lot) will find this a more than worthy pickup."[19] USgamer's Jeremy Parish considers the game as a precursor to modern bullet hell games due to the number of objects and high speed bullets on-screen, commending the additional game modes and pushing limits of the Famicom hardware but criticizing the amount of flickering, controls, simple gameplay, and difficulty.[20] Oprainfall's Will Whitehurst praised the audiovisual presentation, speed, detailed spritework, boss fights, replay value, and emulation quality but criticized the lack of additional plot details, sound balancing issues, and high difficulty curve.[21] However, Hardcore Gaming 101's Kurt Kalata said that the blurry visual emulation of the 3DS Virtual Console "don't do the game any favors", and that it is not quite as impressive on the small screen.[2] Time Extension noted the game as historically significant to the evolution of the bullet hell format.[27]

Notes

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  1. ^ Also known as Summer Carnival '92: Recca (Japanese: サマーカーニバル'92 烈火, Hepburn: Samā Kānibaru '92: Rekka, lit. "Raging Fire" or "Blazing Fire"[1])

References

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  1. ^ a b c Milecki, Adam (September 2, 2008). "Retrospective: Recca for the Famicom (NES)". Retro Thing. Reflex ASI. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2013-03-18.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Kalata, Kurt (August 16, 2017). "Recca". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Recca 取扱説明書 (Family Computer, JP)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Coming Soon: サマーカーニバル'92 烈火". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 187. ASCII Corporation. July 17, 1992. pp. 48–49.
  5. ^ a b Zamora, Alonso (January 28, 2013). "LOS NIVELES PERDIDOS. La historia desconocida de los videojuegos: Nivel 2-2 RECCA". Atomix (in Spanish). Prowell Media. Archived from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2021-07-02.
  6. ^ a b Govoni, Daniel (October 2010). "Summer Carnival '92 Recca — Tudo sobre o incrível shooter que ultrapassou todos os limites do console 8-bit da Nintendo". OLD!Gamer (in Portuguese). No. 4. Editora Europa. pp. 78–83.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "SCDC-00461 | LEGEND CONSUMER SERIES: Summer Carnival '92 RECCA FAMICOM SOUNDTRACK". VGMdb. Archived from the original on 2021-03-16. Retrieved 2021-06-23. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2021-06-09 at the Wayback Machine).
  8. ^ a b "Naxat Information Magazine: The 2nd Tournament Official Soft - サマーカーニバル'92 烈火". Famitsu. No. 184. ASCII Corporation. June 26, 1992. p. 59.
  9. ^ "Summer Carnival '92 RECCA". Nintendo of Europe. Archived from the original on 2014-07-31. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  10. ^ a b c Massey, Tom (January 25, 2015). "A guide to gaming's most valuable treasures". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 2017-11-12. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  11. ^ "インタビュー - プログラマー: S. Yagawa". ケイブシューティング史 こんにちは17年 ありがとう16年 (in Japanese). Cave. 24 August 2010. pp. 187–190. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2020-01-19 at the Wayback Machine).
  12. ^ a b c Kohama, Dai (December 2005). "Rewind: Recca: Summer Carnival '92 — This game should not exist". Play. No. 48. Fusion Publishing. p. 90.
  13. ^ Pilot, Alex; Ruchet, Sébastien (2006). Japon: Histoire du Shooting Game [Japan: History of the Shooting Game]. Game One (YouTube). Japon (in French). France: MTV Networks France. Event occurs at 22m44s. Archived from the original on 2020-10-07. Retrieved 2021-01-22.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) (Transcription and translation by CanalBlog. Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine).
  14. ^ D'Angelo, David (June 25, 2014). "Breaking the NES for Shovel Knight". Gamasutra. UBM Technology Group. Archived from the original on 2015-12-30. Retrieved 2021-06-27. (Transcription by Yacht Club Games. Archived 2015-12-30 at the Wayback Machine).
  15. ^ a b c "NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: サマーカーニバル'92 烈火". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 188. ASCII Corporation. July 24, 1992. Archived from the original on 2015-06-19. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  16. ^ "サマーカーニバル'92 烈火". 懐かしファミコンパーフェクトガイド [Perfect Guide of Nostalgic Famicom]. Perfect Guide (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Magazine Box. April 21, 2016. p. 106. ISBN 978-4906735891.
  17. ^ Spencer (December 4, 2012). "Ultra Rare NES Shooter Coming To 3DS Virtual Console". Siliconera. Curse LLC. Archived from the original on 2013-03-12. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  18. ^ Bonds, Curtis (August 31, 2013). "Summer Carnival '92 Recca - Curt got a chance to try out the hard-to-find NES classic on 3DS". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. Archived from the original on 2021-06-05. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  19. ^ a b van Duyn, Marcel (August 22, 2013). "Summer Carnival '92 RECCA Review (3DS eShop / NES) - For shoot 'em up experts only". Nintendo Life. Nlife Media. Archived from the original on 2015-02-16. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  20. ^ a b Parish, Jeremy (September 10, 2013). "Virtual Spotlight: Recca Summer Carnival '92 - My NES can do what!? Another interesting rarity makes its way to Virtual Console". USgamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  21. ^ a b Whitehurst, Will (September 13, 2013). "REVIEW: Summer Carnival '92 Recca". Oprainfall. Archived from the original on 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  22. ^ a b Brømba (April 1994). "Nintendo: Recca - Summer Carnival '92". Top Secret (in Polish). No. 25. Bajtek Publishing House. p. 32.
  23. ^ a b "ユーゲーが贈るファミコン名作ソフト 100選 - サマーカーニバル'92 烈火". Yuge (in Japanese). Vol. 7, no. 10. Kill Time Communication. June 1, 2003. p. 17.
  24. ^ "FAMICOM - サマーカーニバル'92 烈火". Used Games (in Japanese). Vol. 7. Kill Time Communication. Summer 1998. pp. 114–115.
  25. ^ "超絶 大技林 '98年春版: ファミコン - サマーカーニバル'92 烈火". PlayStation Magazine (Special) (in Japanese). Vol. 42. Tokuma Shoten Intermedia. April 15, 1998. p. 54. ASIN B00J16900U.
  26. ^ "Recca". Retro Gamer. Imagine Publishing. October 20, 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2021-07-02.
  27. ^ Massey, Tom (23 February 2023). "CAVE Story: The Chronicles of DonPachi, The Shmup Series That Changed Everything". Time Extension. Hookshot Media. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
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