Hacha Mecha Fighter is what can be described as the parody counterpart (a la Parodius) of P-47: The Phantom Fighter and US AAF Mustang.
Try to compare stage 1 of this game with stage 2 of P-47 and you'll find the answer.
It's also one of those numerous games that uses the NMK004 sound chip, which was excruciatingly difficult to dump due to its robust protection. As a result, like US AAF Mustang, a bootleg version with Raiden music and sound effects exists.
Revisional Differences#
There are two versions of the game: the original version (called Set 2 in MAME) and the new version (called Set 1 in MAME). The latter is more common, as it's used for competitions and for rereleases (e.g. Arcade Archives).
Title Screen#
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Original |
New |
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The title screen is completely identical, except NMK's logo is larger in the new version.
Difficulty#
The new version did some alterations to the difficulty to make the game harder, but at the same time more tactical and profitable:
- In the original version, rank increases every 34 seconds. In the new version, rank increases every 17 seconds.
- In the original version, after destroying stage 1's midboss, it'll drop 2 flower items. In the new version, it'll drop 4 flower items.
- The original version features a shorter distance of the left side enemy kill point from the left edge of the screen of -4px, while the new version features a longer one of -20px. This results in objects despawning on the left side of the screen slightly earlier in the original version.