Kingdom Grand Prix

Kingdom Grand Prix[lower-alpha 1] is a scrolling shooter/racing hybrid arcade game developed by Raizing and published by Eighting. It was later ported to the Sega Saturn. It is the second entry in the Mahou Daisakusen series, but the first to be a shooter/racing hybrid.

Kingdom Grand Prix
Developer(s)Raizing
Publisher(s)Eighting
Programmer(s)Yasunari Watanabe
Yuichi Toyama
Artist(s)Akihiro Yamada
Kazuyuki Nakashima
Kenichi Yokoo
Composer(s)Hitoshi Sakimoto
Masaharu Iwata
SeriesMahō Daisakusen
Platform(s)Arcade, Sega Saturn
Release
Genre(s)Racing, shoot 'em up
Mode(s)

Gameplay
Arcade version screenshot.

The game consists of a vertically scrolling field where the player races against seven contestants while shooting enemies and avoiding enemy bullets.[2] Tapping the fire button fires the player's weapons; holding it down gives the player a speed boost. In addition to these speed boosts, overall speed will increase or decrease depending on screen position (the higher up the player craft is onscreen, the faster it travels). Overall speed decreases every time a life is lost or the next stage is reached.

The player is also given a limited amount of bombs which destroy most on-screen enemies and slow down the opponent racers. There are four power-ups in Kingdom Grandprix. All have a cumulative effect on overall power except the bomb which simply increases the number of times it has been used.

The game has a total of twelve stages in a branching path configuration. In most cases, there is a choice of two stages for each level. There is only one choice for the first level, and there are three choices for the sixth level. Beating the first loop of the game in one credit and finishing first overall unlocks the second loop, where all the stages not selected in the first loop are played.

Synopsis

Plot

For decades the kingdom has been ravaged by war. Too many innocents have suffered and legions of good men have lost their lives in battle. The king had an idea to stop the war; he would hold a big race that would encompass every part of the kingdom. Everyone from each part of the kingdom was invited to participate. The wars ceased and the people began looking forward to this competition every year.

Development

Kingdom Grand Prix was developed by Raizing.[3][4][5][6]

Release

Kingdom Grand Prix was first released in arcades by Eighting across Japan and Europe on September 1994.[1] During its initial launch, the game did not received a CD music album release until April 24, 2013, which was published by Wave Master.[4][7] The game was later released for the Sega Saturn by GAGA Communications on June 14, 1996.[8] The Saturn version includes a shooting-only mode, where the racing aspect is removed and the player is left to play the game at their own pace.[2]

Reception

Kingdom Grand Prix was well received. Three reviewers from the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine rated it a 5.33 out of 10.[13] According to Famitsu, the Saturn version sold over 7,441 copies in its first week on the market.[14] Four reviewers of Famitsu gave the Saturn version a score of 60 out of 100.[9] François Garnier French magazine Consoles + gave it a review score of ninety percent.[10] Olivier Prézeau of French magazine Joypad gave it a three out of five score.[11] GameSetWatch's Todd Ciolek gave the game an overall mixed outlook, stating that "it's a true curiosity, even if its one unique idea doesn’t quite work. And it’s still one to try, as both a solid twitch-game and a glimpse of one shooter developer’s attempt at something different, if not necessarily better."[15] Hardcore Gaming 101's Kurt Kalata gave it a mostly positive retrospective outlook.[2]

Notes
  1. Also known as Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen Kingdom-Grandprix (Japanese: 疾風魔法大作戦 (しっふうまほうだいさくせん)キングダム-グランドプリ, Hepburn: Shippū Mahō Daisakusen Kingudamu-Gurandopri, lit. "Hurricane Magic Armageddon - Kingdom-Grandprix") in Japan.

References
  1. Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). エイティング（ライジング） Eighting. アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. p. 17. ISBN 978-4990251215.
  2. Kalata, Kurt (13 September 2017). "Shippu Mahou Daisakusen: Kingdom Grand Prix". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  3. "Raizing/8ing (ライジング/エイティング) STGの輪舞 - 外山雄一氏/横尾憲一氏". Shooting Gameside (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Micro Magazine. 17 October 2010. pp. 96–128. ISBN 978-4896373486. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-12-30 at the Wayback Machine).
  4. "WM-0701~2 | Mahou Daisakusen Original Soundtrack". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2020. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-12-30 at the Wayback Machine).
  5. Manami, Rei (8 November 2017). ""エムツー ショット トリガーズ"第3弾『魔法大作戦』発売記念ロングインタビュー（エムツー編）　超魔法ボンバーな勢いで制作された過激な情熱を、開発スタッフに聞く". Famitsu (in Japanese). Gzbrain. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  6. Manami, Rei (24 November 2017). ""エムツー ショット トリガーズ"第3弾『魔法大作戦』発売記念ロングインタビュー（エイティング編）　振り向けば仲間がいた。原作開発時の熱き情熱を当時のスタッフに聞く". Famitsu (in Japanese). Gzbrain. Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  7. Fuentes, Edgar S. (8 May 2019). "Vandal Game Music: Raizing. El terror sonoro en los arcades - Hablamos de las bandas sonoras de la infalible cantera de la lucha y los shoot'em up". Vandal (in Spanish). El Español. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  8. "セガサターン対応ソフトウェア（ライセンシー発売）- 1996年発売". SEGA HARD Encyclopedia (in Japanese). Sega. 2020. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  9. "NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: 疾風魔法大作戦 (セガサターン)". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 392. ASCII. 21 June 1996. p. 30.
  10. Garnier, François (August 1996). "Sega Saturn - Test: Kingdom Grandprix". Consoles + (in French). No. 3 Hors-Série. M.E.R.7. pp. 46–47.
  11. Prézeau, Olivier (August 1996). "Japon Test - Zapping - Saturn - Shippû Mahô Daisakusen Kingdom-Grandprix". Joypad (in French). No. 55. Yellow Media. p. 72.
  12. Blendl, Christian (August 1996). "Overseas – Planet Saturn: Kingdom-Grandprix". MAN!AC (in German). No. 34. Cybermedia. p. 56.
  13. "Sega Saturn Soft Review - 疾風魔法大作戦". Sega Saturn Magazine (in Japanese). No. 23. SoftBank Creative. 14 June 1996. p. 230.
  14. "Game Search". Game Data Library. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  15. Ciolek, Todd (8 July 2007). "'Might Have Been' - Kingdom Grandprix". GameSetWatch. UBM plc. Archived from the original on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
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