ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears

From Sega Retro

n/a

  • Main title
  • Image Fight
  • X Multiply

ImageFightXMultiply title.png

ImageFightXMultiply Saturn JP SSTitle ImageFight.png

ImageFightXMultiply Saturn JP SSTitle XMultiply.png

ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Xing Entertainment
Developer:
Licensor: Irem
Original system(s): Irem M72 Hardware
Developer(s) of original games: Irem
Game total: 2
Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (35 tracks)
Genre: Compilation, Shooting[1][2]

















Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Saturn
JP
¥4,800 (5,040)4,800e[3] T-26110G
Sega Rating: All Ages
Non-Sega versions

ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears (イメージファイト&X-マルチプライ アーケードギアーズ) is a Sega Saturn compilation of two shoot-'em-up games, Image Fight and X Multiply, originally released by Irem into the arcades in 1988 and 1989 respectively. It was released as part of Xing's Arcade Gears range exclusively in Japan.

Games included

  • Image Fight
  • X Multiply

Story

Image Fight

In the year 20XX, Earth's moon has been destroyed by an alien force. They have taken over the moon's main computer, Mariko, which is still intact after the explosion, and used it to produce ships for their invasion. Leading scientists from Earth have produced the Orbit Fighter-1 (OF-1) Daedalus ship to fight off the invaders.

X Multiply

In the year 2249, microscopic aliens have invaded a colony planet, infecting and killing the colonists. Scientists have deployed the microscopic fighter X-002 into the body of a person who has been invaded by the alien queen.

Gameplay

Image Fight

The game is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up where the player pilots a futuristic fighter craft fending off an alien invasion. The first five stages are "practice" stages that take place inside a combat simulation meant to test the pilot. The player's performance is graded after finishing each simulation stage, and an average score of 90% or better in the simulation stages is necessary to progress to real combat in the final three stages. Otherwise, the player must play an additional simulation stage before proceeding to the final stages.

The fighter moves in any direction using the D-Pad. The player can cycle between four movement speeds with B. The structure of the fighter transforms during a speed change, with the wings angling down and back at higher speeds. The fighter's thrusters emit a blue flame whenever the ship changes speed, which can damage enemies. The fighter shoots its main weapon, dual parallel bullets, with A (which has no rapid-fire). Special weapons can be found that attach to the front of the fighter and replace the main weapon. These attachments also protect against a hit to the front of the fighter, but only one time as they are destroyed afterwards. The fighter cannot equip a different special weapon while one is already attached, and the only way to remove an attachment is to have it destroyed.

The fighter can also acquire up to three colored pods, which follow the fighter and provide additional fire. Red pods fire in the opposite direction that the fighter was last moved, so they can be aimed, while blue pods always fire forwards. Up to three pods can be equipped at a time: one to the left, one to the right, and one behind the fighter. The pods are indestructible and can be used to destroy enemies. Colors can be mixed and matched, though collecting another pod after already having three equipped changes them all to the same color. The left and right pods can be launched forward at high speed with C, acting as a projectile attack before circling back and returning to the ship.

The fighter is destroyed if it touches an enemy, enemy fire, or terrain. It respawns at a predetermined checkpoint, without any pods or special weapons, if the player has lives remaining. The game ends if the player runs out of lives but can be continued. Extra lives are given at 100,000 and 250,000 points. Special weapons and pods are retained going into the next stage, except when moving from the simulation stages into real combat. The game loops at a higher difficulty after it is completed.

There are three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard), and the player can change the number of starting lives (between 1 and 5). There are three display modes: Normal, which uses a conventional horizontal aspect ratio; Arcade, which rotates the screen by 90 degrees to replicate the original arcade version's vertical presentation; and Extra, which rotates the screen without also rotating the controls, so that the game can be played in a vertical aspect ratio without rotating the screen (essentially turning it into a horizontal shooter). High scores can be saved to the Saturn's internal memory.

Items

Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Item Container
Destroy to release an item.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Red Pod
Equips a red pod, which follows the ship and fires alongside it. Red pods fire in the opposite direction that the ship was last moved.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Blue Pod
Equips a blue pod, which follows the ship and fires alongside it. Blue pods always fire forwards.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Rippling Laser
Equips a special weapon that shoots ring-shaped projectiles in a wide spread. The rings grow larger as they move away from the fighter.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Drilling Laser
Equips a special weapon that shoots two parallel beams forward.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
V-Cannon
Equips a special weapon that shoots fireballs in a V-shaped pattern.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Seeking Missiles
Equips a special weapon that shoots homing missiles.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Side Shooter
Equips a special weapon that shoots beams to the left and to the right of the fighter.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Reflecting Ball
Equips a special weapon that shoots small energy balls that bounce repeatedly off enemies and surfaces.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Shields
Equips a special weapon that creates two ring-shaped energy barriers in front of the fighter that damage anything they touch. This effect must be activated by pressing AAAAA; otherwise; the standard weapon is fired.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
5-Way Gun
Equips a special weapon that shoots a segmented energy wave in a large arc forward.
Image Fight Saturn, Items.png
Seeking Laser
Equips a special weapon that shoots two parallel laser beams that can each bend one time at a 90-degree angle to seek enemies.

Stages

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-3.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-4.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 1-4.png

Simulation 1

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-3.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-4.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 2-4.png

Simulation 2

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-3.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-4.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 3-4.png

Simulation 3

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-3.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-4.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 4-4.png

Simulation 4

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 5-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 5-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 5-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 5-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 5-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 5-3.png

Simulation 5

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-3.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-4.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 6-4.png

Penalty Area
This stage is only played if the player fails to attain an average score of 90% or higher in the previous stages.

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 7-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 7-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 7-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 7-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 7-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 7-3.png

Area 1

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-3.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-4.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-5.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-4.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 8-5.png

Area 2

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-1.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-2.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-3.png

Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-4.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-1.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-2.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-3.png

  • Image Fight Saturn, Stage 9-4.png

Area 3

X Multiply

The game is a horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up where the player controls a microscopic fighter craft flying through the body of a human to destroy alien parasites. The fighter moves in any direction using the D-Pad. It shoots its weapon, a single stream of bullets, with A, B, or C (which can be held for rapid-fire). More powerful special weapons can be found that replace the standard weapon. The first weapon power-up obtained causes the fighter to grow two mechanical tentacles, one above and one below it, which replicate its fire with two additional guns. The tentacles are invulnerable and can be used to attack enemies or neutralize enemy projectiles. They close behind the fighter when it moves forward or close in front of the fighter when it moves back, so they can be moved to protect the fore or aft of the fighter or to spread or concentrate its fire. When the fighter is not moving, the tentacles separate.

The fighter is destroyed if it touches an enemy, enemy fire, or terrain. It respawns at a predetermined checkpoint, without special weapons or tentacles, if the player has lives remaining. The game ends if the player runs out of lives but can be continued. Extra lives can be picked up as items. Special weapons and tentacles are retained going into the next stage. The game loops at a higher difficulty after it is completed.

There are three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard), and the player can change the number of starting lives (between 1 and 5). During gameplay, the status area on the bottom of the screen can be moved up or down slightly with L or R (to compensate for the different screen size between the arcade version and the Saturn port). High scores can be saved to the Saturn's internal memory.

Items

The first weapon upgrade acquired gives the fighter its tentacles rather than changing its weapon.

X Multiply Saturn, Items.png
Speed Up
Increases the fighter's movement speed.
X Multiply Saturn, Items.png
Speed Down
Decreases the fighter's movement speed.
X Multiply Saturn, Items.png
Bombs
Adds bombs to the fighter's attack, which drop downward in an arc as the main weapon is fired.
X Multiply Saturn, Items.png
Homing Missiles
Changes the weapon to a volley of homing missiles.
X Multiply Saturn, Items.png
Lasers
Changes the weapon to a long, piercing laser beam.
X Multiply Saturn, Items.png
Directional Shot
Changes the weapon to energy balls that fire in the direction opposite direction that the fighter was last moved.
X Multiply Saturn, Items.png
1-Up
Gives the player an extra life.

Stages

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-1.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-2.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-3.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-4.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-1.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-2.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-3.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 1-4.png

Stage 1
Boss:
Hostur[4]

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-1.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-2.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-3.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-4.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-1.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-2.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-3.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 2-4.png

Stage 2
Boss:
Rokusu[5]

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-1.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-2.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-3.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-4.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-1.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-2.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-3.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 3-4.png

Stage 3
Boss:
Zarikasu[6]

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-1.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-2.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-3.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-4.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-1.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-2.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-3.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 4-4.png

Stage 4
Boss:
Ghoums[7]

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-1.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-2.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-3.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-4.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-1.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-2.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-3.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 5-4.png

Stage 5
Boss:
Hidra[8]

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-1.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-2.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-3.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-4.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-1.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-2.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-3.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 6-4.png

Stage 6
Boss:
Darya[9]

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-1.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-2.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-3.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-4.png

X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-5.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-1.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-2.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-3.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-4.png

  • X Multiply Saturn, Stage 7-5.png

Stage 7
Boss:
Bykhee[10]

Magazine articles

Main article: ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1998-11: "1998-11 (1998-04-10,17)" (1998-03-27)
Logo-pdf.svg

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
{{{{{icon}}}|L}} Division by zero.
Based on
0 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
53
[11]
Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J
50
[12]
Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J
68
[13]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
63
[14]
Sega Saturn
58
Based on
4 reviews

ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears

Saturn, JP
ImageFightXMultiply Saturn JP Box Back.jpgImageFightXMultiply Saturn JP Box Front.jpg
Cover
ImageFightandXMultiply Saturn JP Spinecard.jpg
Spinecard
ImageFightXMultiply Saturn JP Disc.jpg
Disc

Technical information

Main article: ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears/Technical information.

References

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NEC Retro has more information related to Image Fight


ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears

ImageFightXMultiply title.png

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Arcade Gears compilations
Pu-Li-Ru-La/Arcade Gears (1997) | Gun Frontier Arcade Gears (1997) | Wonder 3 Arcade Gears (1998) | ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears (1998) | Edward Randy Arcade Gears (unreleased)