Surprise Attack

Surprise Attack (サプライズアタック Sapuraizu Atakku^?) is a side-scrolling action-shooter platformer video game developed and published by Konami for arcade platforms in 1990. The game was re-released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on March 21, 2024 as part of the Arcade Archives series, courtesy of Hamster Corporation.

Plot[]

In 2031 A.D., an interplanetary terrorist organization known as "Black Dawn" began infiltrating into many sectors of the universe. They have now come dangerously close to the Earth and have taken over one of its vital moon bases and its neighboring space station, 2CV6, and have planted numerous time-bombs in readiness for an attack on the Earth. Special Task Force agent, John Ryan, code named "Red Thunderbolt", is the only one who can put an end to Black Dawn's evil ambitions.

Gameplay[]

The player takes the role of Special Task Force agent, John Ryan, in this side-scrolling action shooter platformer game (gameplay is reminiscent of Sega's Shinobi series). The player has to guide John through seven chapters, each divided in either three or four areas; the first ones are side-scrolling levels, and the last one is a boss fight (with rare exceptions). In the side-scrolling areas, the player has to defuse a number of timed bombs planted by the enemy. Once all bombs have been collected, the exit of that area will open. A small congratulatory message will appear at the end of each area depending on how much time it took the player to complete it: "Hi_speed dude" if completing it in a short time, "Medium_paced operator" if they took an average amount of time, and "Laid_back turtle" if they took too long.

There are two main types of areas. In the first type, John can jump between two planes –foreground and background– with the latter usually being on a higher level, or behind crystal walls or fences. In the second type, John can switch the gravity, allowing him to walk on ceilings, with all controls inverted accordingly.

Power-ups can be picked up on the field. The more common is the "Grenade Disk", which upgrades the player's firepower and makes projectiles explode on contact, covering a wider area and being able to penetrate shields. The other power-up is the "Mover Fuel", which resembles a pair of air tanks and surrounds John in an electric barrier upon pickup, granting him temporary invincibility, dealing damage to enemies on contact, and allowing him to freely fly for a short period of time. Some later areas have several Mover Fuels in them, but it can only be used once per level, and once picked up, all the rest will gray out and become unusable for the rest of the level. Additionally, picking up the Mover Fuel is penalized by the removal of a special bonus at the end of the stage.

A quiz bonus stage is entered at the end of each chapter, where the player has to answer ten questions; these are mainly based on science fiction and space culture. Each correct answer is worth 1,000 points, with the highest prize being a whooping 10,000 points for correctly answering all ten questions. This quiz minigame can be disabled via the PCB board's DIP switches.