Finest Hour (video game)

Finest Hour[a] is a 1989 run and gun video game developed for arcades and published in Japan by Namco. It was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console on August 25, 2009.[1]

Finest Hour
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Namco
Composer(s)Katsuro Tajima
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
  • JP: September 1989
Genre(s)Run and gun
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer (alternating turns)
Arcade systemNamco System 2

Gameplay edit

 
In-game screenshot

The player must take control of a Transformer-like battlemech known as Sygnus, who is equipped with a laser cannon, Vernier jump-jets, auto-targeting, and an automatic cooling system. Pushing that joystick twice in the same direction will make Sygnus switch from a march to a dash while he is moving, and the player may not make him change the direction that he is facing in mid-air. He has no "life meter", just a temperature meter which increases when he is hit, and decreases when he is not hit - but, if the timer should run out, his cooling device will break. If he should overheat, the game will immediately be over. The game is made of four stages which must be finished twice.

Reception edit

In Japan, Game Machine listed Finest Hour on their October 15, 1989 issue as being the eighth most-successful table arcade game of the year.[2]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Japanese: ファイネストアワー, Hepburn: Fainesuto Awā

References edit

  1. ^ Nakano, Shinji (21 August 2009). "バンダイナムコ、「ファイネストアワー」 VCAで8月25日から配信開始". Game Watch (in Japanese). Impress Group. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 366. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 October 1989. p. 25.