Solvalou/Walkthrough

Namco's Japan-only 1991 first-person shooter arcade game Solvalou (which is the third title in their series) is divided into three areas, which are each indicated by a different astrological sign. The image shown above is from the game's opening cutscene, which is the only time you will actually see the Solvalou in the game (apart from its static image in the shield indicator at the top of the screen) due to its first-person viewpoint; as with the two previous games in the series, the Solvalou is always moving forward, but you'll no longer have direct control over its flight path. Instead, you must use the analogue joystick to direct its gunsight around the screen, squeezing the trigger to fire continuous stream of shots at the air-based enemies and pressing the button on top of the stick to drop bombs on the ground-based enemies - you can have four bombs on the screen at a time, which are indicated by the "BLASTER" icons above your score in the bottom-left corner of the screen. However, you will notice that the controls of the joystick are "reversed", just like those of a real spaceship; this means that pushing it up will cause the Solvalou to dive and pushing it down will cause the Solvalou to rise, and if you are using MAME to play this game (which you almost certainly will be unless you are a native inhabitant of the "Land of the Rising Sun"), you may wish to set the "AD Stick Y Reverse" option in the "Analog Controls" menu to "Off" after learning of this fact.

As mentioned on the Getting Started page, the Solvalou will also not die after a single hit in this instalment - for the first three hits, the screen will flash red and two pairs of "shield lines" that are surrounding the Solvalou will disappear from the shield indicator. After the fourth hit, the text "SHIELD POWER DOWN!" will flash up continuously in the centre of the screen, and after the fifth hit, the "bubble" that is surrounding the Solvalou will disappear from the shield indicator and the text "SHIELD SYSTEM DOWN!" will flash up continuously in the centre of the screen as a Japanese speech sample is played continuously in the background. After the sixth hit, the Solvalou will be destroyed and your total score will flash up at the top of the screen as the text "GAME OVER" comes spinning towards you; you will then have to use the stick to try and enter your initials on the high-score table, which is not easy to do due to its sensitivity. Only fifteen regular enemy types from the two previous games are present here (six air-based, and nine ground-based), but the presence of the Andor Genesis Motherships (which are not depicted on the Getting Started page) is indicated by the text "WARNING!" appearing at the top of the screen - their four cannons are worth 1000 points apiece if destroyed, and their cores are worth 4000 points if destroyed. You will usually also have to deal with a barrage of Zakato just before it appears, which will self-destruct to fire off a projectile if not shot in time.