ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears

n/a

Main title Image Fight X Multiply
ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Xing Entertainment
Developer: Xing Entertainment
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
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1998-08-20 ¥4,800 (5,040)4,800e T-26110G
Non-Sega versions PlayStation

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 wherein the player pilots a futuristic fighter craft. 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 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 . 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 (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. 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 , 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. The pods are indestructible and can be used to destroy enemies. Special weapons and pods are retained going into the next stage, except when moving from the simulation stages into real combat.

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).

Items

	Item Container
	Destroy to release an item.
	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.
	Blue Pod
	Equips a blue pod, which follows the ship and fires alongside it. Blue pods always fire forwards.
	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.
	Drilling Laser
	Equips a special weapon that shoots two parallel beams forward.
	V-Cannon
	Equips a special weapon that shoots fireballs in a V-shaped pattern.
	Seeking Missiles
	Equips a special weapon that shoots homing missiles.
	Side Shooter
	Equips a special weapon that shoots beams to the left and to the right of the fighter.
	Reflecting Ball
	Equips a special weapon that shoots small energy balls that bounce repeatedly off enemies and surfaces.
	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 ; otherwise; the standard weapon is fired.
	5-Way Gun
	Equips a special weapon that shoots a segmented energy wave in a large arc forward.
	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

	Simulation 1
	Simulation 2
	Simulation 3
	Simulation 4
	Simulation 5
	Penalty Area
	This stage is only played if the player fails to attain an average score of 90% or higher in the previous stages.
	Area 1
	Area 2
	Area 3

Magazine articles

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

Promotional material

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

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 53 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 50 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 68 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 63

	58
Based on 4 reviews

ImageFight & XMultiply: Arcade Gears

Saturn, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc

Technical information

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

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	577,907,568	1998-06-17	CD-ROM (JP)	T-26110G V1.010

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Image Fight