Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 is a new game for the Neo*Geo Pocket Color. Known simply as Beast Buster in Japan, this game began as an obscure arcade gun shooter. When Beast Buster was ported to the NGPC, it underwent a number of changes to accommodate the limitations of the handheld. The result is a very enjoyable game that is sort of a cross between an overhead shooter and an RPG.

In Dark Arms, you are a "Beast Buster" who entered the spirit world after forging a contract with the people of the dark side. The game begins in the house of an entity called the "Master". The Master is basically your mentor in this game, and it is he who initially (and I stress "initially", and you'll find out why later in the game) helps you to achieve your goal: to create an ultimate weapon (the "Dark Arms"). At the beginning of the game, the Master gives you a weapon called the catcher (which, as the name implies, allows you to capture monsters). He tells you to go to the Graveyard of Darkness, retrieve a "seed" that's hidden there, and use the catcher to capture a few monsters.

The gameplay in Dark Arms is very typical of an overhead action game; you basically explore dungeons and kill monsters. Puzzles are virtually nonexistent, however; a lot more emphasis is placed on collecting "seeds" and "oums". By joining seeds and oums together, you can create new weapons, and you can strengthen these weapons by feeding them the monsters you capture.

The concept of day and night is very important in Dark Arms. The monsters you encounter differ depending on what time of day it is; the more "dangerous" monsters generally appear at nighttime. Likewise, some of the non-player characters appear only during the day (or only at night); if you wish to talk to them, you'll have to enter their place of residence at the appropriate time.

Allow me to stress that while Dark Arms is an action game at heart, there are a few RPG-like elements. As you may have already guessed, a good portion of the game involves collecting weapons. There are 31 potential weapons you can create in Dark Arms, and some of the weapons are ingenious in their design and nature (e.g. one of the weapons is a set of tentacles!). There's a bit of monster collecting in Dark Arms as well; whenever you catch a monster using the catcher, it gets included in a database called the "Beast Reference Book", which you can view whenever you start the game. Also, you gain experience points by defeating enemies. However, unlike most RPGs, the experience points you gain are not used to make your character stronger. The main character has a set amount of life points and "power" (note: "power" is basically ammunition in Dark Arms; it gets used up whenever you fire a weapon, and it automatically replenishes itself whenever you're not using a weapon) and these attributes never change. The experience points are used to make your weapons stronger. As a weapon gains levels, it not only increases in attack strength, but it also uses less power to attack with.

By feeding a weapon the monsters you have caught with the catcher, the weapon gains EVP (Evolve points). After obtaining a certain amount of EVP, a weapon can evolve. There are several stages of evolution for each weapon class, as well as several different paths of evolution (e.g. the simple handgun you create early in the game could either evolve into a machine gun, a beam gun, or a shotgun, and these three weapons could evolve even further). Some monsters also instill elemental properties when you feed them to a weapon.

There are a few flaws with the weapon growth system in Dark Arms. The first flaw is that food is extremely abundant (remember: you obtain food by capturing enemies with the Catcher). The second flaw is that when a weapon evolves, not only does it lose any elemental property it has, its level also resets back to 1, regardless of what level the weapon was at before you changed it. The third flaw is that there are no advantages to leveling-up your weapons before evolving them. (For example, let's say you decided to change your handgun into a sub-machine gun. The sub-machine gun would have the same initial parameters, regardless of whether your handgun was at level 1 or at level 20 when you decided to make it evolve.) Because of this, it is simply too tempting to evolve your weapons to their most powerful forms without bothering to level up their intermediates. Although there are a few cases in which it is better to keep an intermediate form rather than having it evolve (e.g. the Beam Gun has more practical uses than its "descendant", the Vanisher), I think it would have been much better if the game required you to get your weapon up to at least level 20 before you can make it evolve. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In my game, I had two of my weapons evolved to their highest forms (one of which was a super strong "Protective shotgun" that fired 3 shots at once) long before I even completed the third dungeon. Needless to say, I was virtually unstoppable for most of the game!

Which thus brings me to my next point: Dark Arms is too short! As stated, I had two of my weapons (my shotgun and machine gun) evolved to their highest forms before completing the third dungeon. For a while, I was contemplating why this game would allow you to become so ungodly powerful so early in the game. Then I realized why: I was already halfway through! As it turns out, there are only 6 dungeons that you are required to complete to finish the game. After the official "ending", there's still one optional dungeon you can complete. While the game boasts that this dungeon is a fifty-floor monstrosity, it's really not big at all, especially considering that each floor consists of only one room. The total amount of time it took for me to finish the game (and complete the extra dungeon) was approximately six hours.

As a consequence of the game's length (or lack thereof), the storyline in Dark Arms is severely flawed. While there is a discernible plot to this game (which involves both creating the "ultimate" weapon and returning a girl named Joyce to the human world), it's so thin and confusing that I eventually just left it as an afterthought and completely ignored it! I still don't understand the connection between the Master, Raison (an old woman you meet halfway through Dark Arms), and Joyce - not that I even cared anyway. This is unfortunate; the dark, gothic flavor of this game did appeal to me, and Dark Arms COULD have had an excellent plot if the writers had put any bit of effort into making one. I couldn't blame the story on SNK's translation either, as I've played through both the import and domestic versions.

However, the short, thin plot from Dark Arms did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the game. After all, I tend to think of it as more of an action game than an RPG. And, as an action game, it is well done.

The graphics in Dark Arms are excellent and are among the best I've seen on the NGPC. With highly detailed backgrounds, each area has its own specific graphic style. The monsters are quite varied; their designs are good, and they animate fluidly. Same thing goes for the weapons (the aforementioned tentacle is literally a sight to see!). And, while the graphics are obviously tile-based in most areas, there's very little repetition.

Dark Arms also gets high marks in the sound department. While the sound effects are rather plain, the music truly shines. The music in Dark Arms is spooky, and I've never heard anything like it in any handheld game. Also, the music that plays in each area changes depending on whether it's day or night.

The controls in Dark Arms are almost flawless. Because of the design of the NGPC's directional pad, the controls are very responsive and your character is easy to maneuver in all eight directions. Depending on what weapon you're currently using, if you hold down the A button, you could attack with the weapon continuously (provided that you have enough power to do so). Switching between weapons is a breeze; you can carry four weapons at once (including the catcher), and these weapons can be switched by pressing the B button at any time. The only problem with the controls is that your character moves a bit slow, and there's no way to make him walk faster.

I must note that there is one feature of Dark Arms that I have yet to try: the two-player mode. If you have a link cable, you could play the game in vs. mode, in which you choose a stage and have a one-on-one battle with another player. Obviously, this requires a friend who has a NGPC, a link cable and a copy of Dark Arms; unfortunately, I feel like I'm the only person within a 50-mile radius who has a NGPC to begin with. =(

Verdict: Dark Arms is a really good action/RPG for the NGPC, albeit a bit short. It's recommended nonetheless. As for the storyline, I suggest you just ignore it; it'll save you a lot of trouble.