Sqoon
Description
When the rulers of planet Neptune find that they are running out of their main food source – man-ham – they hit on a devious plan: Invade the nearby planet earth and melt the polar ice-caps, thus sinking all cities. Then imprison the human creatures in underwater factories where they can be turned into a fresh source of man-ham.
The plan goes perfectly. The leaders of earth's nations are taken completely by surprise as the ice-caps melt and the globe is flooded. It seems that humanity will meet its end on the dinner plates of the Neptunian monsters. But wait! One hope remains, in the form of evil pirate Narikeen, who has been the scourge of the world's nations, pillaging and causing general distress in his pink submarine, Sqoon. The leader of the world's ailing defense force turns to this former public enemy number 1, and with some difficulty manages to convince Narikeen to save the world.
In this side-scrolling shooter, you control Narikeen's sub, Sqoon. Sqoon is equipped with two weapons; an upgradable missile launcher which shoots straight ahead to take out the weird Neptunian enemies and an ice-bomb which shoots horizontally downwards to blow up factories and other installations. Destroying these buildings releases the humans inside, who then float out so you can rescue them. When you have nine people on-board, a small mobile island will appear on the surface, allowing you to drop off the humans and re-fuel. You'll need to save a lot of people and re-fuel regularly, as your sub only lasts about 60 seconds on one tank of gas. There are eight levels in the game, each set in a different (sunken) country.
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Average score: 60% (based on 4 ratings)
Players
Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 7 ratings with 1 reviews)
Impressive animations and sounds in Irem's early underwater-based shooter
The Good
Human beings are a popular source of food among aliens from the planet Neptune. To them, they taste like ham, so they nicknamed them Man-hams. They eventually run out of these Man-hams, so what do they do? Beam down to Earth to feed on humans so they can make more man-ham livestock. The humans are stored in polar ice caps which, when destroyed, cause entire continents to sink under the ocean. The Earth Defense Army begs Narikeen, a pirate with an attitude, to send his pink submarine Sqoon to exterminate the aliens.
The gameplay reminds me of Scramble, in that the game is a horizontally-scrolling shooter, and you are equipped with missiles attached to the front and an infinite supply of bombs. In this case, the bombs are used to melt the ice caps you come across, releasing any humans trapped inside. You are also running out of fuel, and to top it up you need to rescue nine humans and get them onto an island. If you run into any Neptunians while humans are on board, you will lose them. How many you lose depends on what type of Neptunian you come across. Once all nine humans have disembarked, you will receive upgrades to your missiles. The animation of Narikeen opening the hatch to let the humans out is impressive, so is the animation of them climbing the ladder.
When a certain distance has been covered, you have to navigate a field of floating depth charges before destroying a ship. Sqoon is intended to be a “score-attack” game; after completing the eighth level, you go back to the first and continue playing the game until you run out of lives.
When you are entering a sunken city, you hear a nice melody relevant to that city. For instance “God Save the Queen” is heard when you reach England. I also like the music on the title screen as well, and what happens on this title screen itself is amusing. You have humans floating about everywhere and sharks eating them – just one of the things you have to avoid while playing the game.
The Bad
The disembarking of man-hams is not automatic; you have to press the B button to get them onto the island.
The Bottom Line
Sqoon is an overlooked title from Irem, in which you go around shooting enemies, rescue humans called "man-hams", and take them up to the surface. Kudos to the author who thought of an original idea. The game has impressive animations and great sound, and if you are a fan of underwater-based shooters, make sure not to miss this one.
NES · by Katakis | カタキス (43091) · 2022
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Game added by xroox.
Game added June 9, 2007. Last modified September 3, 2023.