Classic Moments: Point Blank
All the best bits from Namco’s brilliant arcade game, including leaf shooting
When you picked up a G-con 45 and Point Blank, you were sold on the promise of madcap blasting fun. You were going to spray bullets around at will, shatter some skeletons and watch those hilarious little characters do their thing. It was going to be great. But you’ve been trying to get through the game without continues and it’s actually very difficult.
You’re on a good run, but there’s one stage left in the set and you’ve only got one life. And of all the stages, it had to be the one that makes you sweat – a tense single-bullet shootout that requires impeccable accuracy. The scene is one of tranquillity, with a tree framing a beautiful sunset backdrop. A single leaf drops from the top of the screen. That’s your target, its erratic movements causing you to doubt your own aim. You estimate the path of the leaf, get your finger on the trigger, then – hesitation. It’s half-way down, it’s now or never. You squeeze the trigger. The leaf continues to fall, completely undisturbed.
BIO
Originally released as Gun Bullet in Japanese arcades in 1994, Namco’s Point Blank consisted of a variety of humorous challenges starring Dr Don and Dr Dan. The game came to Playstation a few years later, complete with additions including an RPG mode, where it joined the ranks of the system’s great party games. The success of the game ensured a much more timely home conversion of the arcade sequel
Point Blank 2, and Point Blank 3 followed soon after. Though the series isn’t revisited often, Namco does still release Point Blank games – the most recent being 2016’s Point Blank X.
car crusher
You know that scumbag that cut you off at the junction earlier? That’s his car on the screen, that is.
You’ve got 12 seconds to pump 60 bullets into it, a rate of five shots per second, but that won’t be a problem thanks to the sheer rage you’re still experiencing after that incident. Let it have it.
covering Fire
Who sent Dr Don and Dr
Dan to the front line? Well, that doesn’t matter now – they’re here and they need your help. And although they’re being attacked by a tank battalion the size of
Belgium, those tanks fall to single handgun bullets – so you get some space to admire the terror on the doctors’ faces.
ninja assault
Point Blank does include a number of sections that are more like traditional light gun games than anything else, which normally test your speed and accuracy.
But they can’t quite be normal, this being Point Blank, so the deadly ninjas you’re facing here? They all happen to be cardboard cut-outs.
explosive Finale
The final stage of Point
Blank is a fitting sendoff – instead of the stressful action of the usual minigames, the only requirement in the last game is to shoot as many fireworks as you can, thus igniting them and giving yourself a spectacular ending. Good job there, comedy marksman!