N-Sub Longplay (Arcade Version)

- N-Sub Longplay (Arcade Version) - N-Sub is a Sega arcade shooter from 1980 built around an underwater setup rather than the usual space backdrop of the period. You control a submarine at the bottom of the screen and attack enemy ships above while trying to avoid the steady return fire coming from both the surface and underwater. It is a simple game to understand, but not a simple one to survive. A large part of that comes from the way the game attacks the player. The submarine fires in two directions, horizontally and vertically, using separate buttons, while the enemy answers back with missiles, torpedoes and depth charges. That means danger is coming from more than one angle almost all the time, and the pressure builds very quickly even in the opening round. The first stage is already challenging, and by the third round the amount of fire coming in can make it seem as though every enemy on screen has taken the player’s existence personally. Each wave ends after twelve enemy ships are destroyed, but the rising difficulty makes the later rounds far more oppressive than the basic setup first suggests. That is really what defines the game. N-Sub is fun, but it is also much harder than it initially looks, and that constant sense of being boxed in from above and below gives it a more hostile edge than many early shooters with equally simple mechanics. The game later appeared on the SG-1000 in 1983. That version stayed close to the arcade original, although it was somewhat less punishing. Even so, the difficulty remained a major part of the game’s identity there as well. #retrogamingloft #nsub #arcadegames