''Cannon Spike'', originally released in Japan as , is a

multi-directional shooter A twin-stick shooter is a subgenre of shoot 'em up video games. It is a multidirectional shooter in which the player character is controlled using two joysticks: one for movement on a flat plane, and one to aim and fire shots at enemies, Usually s ...

arcade game released in 2000 by

Psikyo Psikyo was a Japanese video game developer and publisher known for its shoot 'em ups and undressing mahjong games. It was founded in 1992 by former Video System staff who worked on the ''Aero Fighters'' series. Psikyo was mainly an arcade game de ...

and later in the same year for the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...

by Capcom. It uses Capcom-designed characters and runs on Sega's Naomi Hardware. ''Cannon Spike'' is similar to games like ''

Smash TV ''Smash TV'' is a 1990 arcade video game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams Electronics Games. It is a dual-stick shooter (one for moving and the other for firing) in the same vein as 1982's ''Robotron: 2084'' (co-created b ...

'' and Capcom's ''

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'', although with primary focus on boss fighting. ''Cannon Spike'' is noted as the last game released for

in Europe, published by Bigben Interactive and exclusively sold at retail in Game outlets. The international title, ''Cannon Spike'', is the name of a trademark attack performed by Cammy, a character from the ''

Street Fighter , commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...

'' series of video games and one of the protagonists of this title.

Characters

The game's playable characters, which come from a range of Capcom games, include: *

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...

from '' Ghosts 'n Goblins'' * Baby Bonnie Hood (or Bulleta in Japan) from '' Darkstalkers'' (hidden character) * Cammy from the '' Street Fighter II'' series * Charlie (or Nash in Japan) from the '' Street Fighter Alpha'' series * Mega Man (or Rockman in Japan) from the '' Mega Man'' series (hidden character) *Shiba Shintaro from ''

Three Wonders is a 1991 video game collection developed and published by Capcom, originally released for the arcades using the CPS-1 platform. It includes three related titles: a platformer; a scrolling shooter; and a puzzle video game. Gameplay ''M ...

'' One other character, Simone, was made specifically for the game and has not been featured in any game since. Simone shares a few similarities with another Capcom character, Linn Kurosawa, from ''

Alien vs. Predator ''Alien vs. Predator'' (also known as ''Aliens versus Predator'' and ''AVP'') is a science-fiction action horror media franchise created by comic book writers Randy Stradley and Chris Warner. The series is a crossover between, and part of, th ...

''.

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...

appears as an enemy character, named ''Fallen Balrog'' or ''Revenger Balrog'' in all regions.

Gameplay

In its arcade incarnation, the game is played using a joystick and three buttons; Mark (used to lock onto a targeted enemy), Shoot, and Attack (a close-range strike, usually more powerful or with greater knock-back compared to ordinary shooting). In addition to these basic commands, each character also has a ranged special attack (unleashed by pressing Shoot and Attack simultaneously), a close-range special (Mark and Attack simultaneously), and a super special (all three buttons simultaneously). The use of the super special requires a Special Token, occasionally dropped by a defeated enemy and always dropped by a defeated ally in 2-player mode.

Reception

The Dreamcast version received "average" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

'' and ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

'' gave it average reviews, months before its U.S. release. Greg Orlando of '' NextGen'' said that the game was "not quite artillerific, but it is a mindlessly fun way to murder some time." In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' gave it a score of 30 out of 40. Also in Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed the arcade version in their 15 November 2000 issue as the second most-successful arcade game of the month.

Notes

References

External links

*
Cannon Spike
' at HardcoreGaming101 * * {{Street Fighter series 2000 video games Arcade video games Capcom games Crossover video games Dreamcast games Multidirectional shooters Psikyo games Video games about terrorism Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists