Knife Edge: Nose Gunner

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a game by Kotobuki System Co., Ltd.
Genre: Action
Platform: Nintendo 64Nintendo 64
Editor Rating: 5.3/10, based on 2 reviews, 3 reviews are shown
User Rating: 6.7/10 - 3 votes
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See also: Old School Games, Cult Classic Games
Knife Edge: Nose Gunner
Knife Edge: Nose Gunner
Knife Edge: Nose Gunner
Knife Edge: Nose Gunner

Not so much a knife as a wooden spoon!

Light gun shooters, eh? They've always been a stalwart of videogaming. The reason is simple - while holding a joypad in your hands might give you total control over the game, there's just nothing to compare with the sheer macho feel of blasting away at the bad guys with a powerful handgun. Operation Wolf, Virtua Cop, Time Crisis, Gun Blade... all games with good, hard, two-word names, next to nothing in the way of plot, simple on-rails gameplay and a succession of enemies popping out of the woodwork for players to blast apart with their weapons. Knife Edge fits in nicely alongside them. Oh. Hang on a minute. There's just one slight snag... there isn't a light gun for the N64.

Knife Edge's storyline is simplicity itself. It's the next century. Mars has been colonised, and all of a sudden a load of nasty aliens have popped up to register their protest at this rampant imperialism. Time for you, as the pilot of futuristic death machine Knife Edge, to swoop in and riddle the Martians with depleted uranium bullets.

The main game is played out over four levels, which offer numerous alternate routes to prevent the traditional on-rails shooter problem of seeing everything the first time round. There are also Co-operative and Battle modes, although the latter isn't nearly as exciting as it sounds. Four people can take part, but they're not fighting each other, just competing to shoot down the most aliens.

Rock And... More Rock

Graphically, Knife Edge tries very hard to get a harder-edged Starfox/Lylat Wars look, and a couple of the enemy aircraft have quite a decent pseudo-japanese techno feel. Most of the time, though, the bad guys are an incredibly unimaginative bunch. The bosses actually go so far as to be dull, with a giant sphinx being the most striking. Compared to the transforming weirdos from Lylat Wars, Knife Edge's ultimate terrors have all the in-yer-face impact of Driving Miss Daisy.

There are five levels in Knife Edge, four listed in the manual and a hidden "oh-no-ifs-not-really-over" attempt at a shock ending. Whatever the level, the visuals are monumentally tedious. There's none of Lylat Wars' variety and imagination, just mile after mile of rock in slightly different colours. Even the level aboard a space station looks like it's made of rock!

Although the C buttons allow you a limited amount of movement off the preset course through the game, mainly to dodge incoming fire, you're restricted to following the same route through each section. Even though the manual claims "there are more than 100 routes in Stage 1 alone!" you always end up passing through the same areas, and all the routes are more or less identical anyway. There certainly aren't any surprises hiding in obscure corners.

Non-cerebral Bore

Knife Edge's big problem is that it is so hideously boring to play. The sound effects are insipid farty things - even nuking a boss just produces a kind of wet 'pthfwupp' noise - that do nothing to pep up the blandness on screen. Wafting uncontrollably from place to place, along stupidly twisty courses that make it almost impossible to track targets accurately, provides no entertainment whatsoever.

If the N64 had a light gun, Knife Edge might have been passable, if short-lived, fun. As there isn't one, it's a soul-sapping experience that drains your will to live and leaves you struggling toward the kitchen to cane down a mouthful of raw coffee beans and half a pint of boiling water just to bring you back to a state of near-wakefulness. Without a light gun, playing Knife Edge makes you wish you had a real gun so you could end the pain!

2nd rating opinion

Ooh, now this is quite horrible. It drags along reluctantly, looks like everything is being viewed through a muddy puddle and should really sod off never to be seen again. An utter insult to the N64 and consoles in general.

Download Knife Edge: Nose Gunner

Nintendo 64

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Game Reviews

People say:

4

Knife Edge is a rail shooter that plays like a light gun game without the light gun. It's not a bad concept. The problem is, Knife Edge lacks the beauty and immersiveness of classics like Panzer Dragoon or StarBlade. The drab levels are uninspiring: You have a generic space station, a generic city, a generic canyon, etc. Nothing in the stages scream originality. And since this is a rail shooter (where you're carried along with no freedom of movement), scenery matters a lot. The gameplay isn't terribly exciting either. You might find yourself yawning as you trudge through the boring stages, shooting at their boring enemies. The game, however, isn't without its good points. Er, rather, its one good point. The best feature of the game has to be, by far, the ability to dodge attacks in different directions (done with the camera buttons). This gives Knife Edge some much-needed depth since you'll have to skillfully aim and duck at the same time. Unfortunately, this saving grace isn't all it should be. First, dodging in the correct direction isn't as intuitive as it should be. You'll take a lot of unnecessary hits because it's not clear which way you should juke. Second, you don't really need to dodge that often-you'll only use it on the occasional Boss and mid-Boss. Overall, this is a very lackluster game.

7

I'm not entirely wowed by Knife Edge but it is a fun game, and it's certainly something different. I'm surprised how well the analog stick works with a game like Knife Edge. Is this a genre on the N64 not yet tapped by game developers? I think so. How about an N64 Duck Hunt? Overall, Knife Edge is an interesting title to add to the growing N64 library--even with its 16-Bit style cut-scenes and hacked-up dialogue.

7

Knife Edge is a poor-man's Gunblade NY--and that's fine with me. The N64 needs fun light gun-type shooters like this, even if the system doesn't have a light gun (don't worry--your crosshairs control fine with the stick). Despite a bland selection of weapons, KE's quick pace and variety of enemies make for intense gameplay, with Boss battles being especially coot. The multiplayer Co-op and Battle Modes are nice touches.

4

I just can't get past the limited play mechanics of Knife Edge. There are multiple paths to take per mission--and when I say multiple I mean upward of eight or more. This is a great feature and one of the saving graces of the title. But in a game where all you do is point a cursor and shoot, I expect amazing graphics and better camera movement. Knife Edge doesn't have much of either, and the sound effects are pretty cheesy.

Trigger jockeys will enjoy the nonstop shooter action of Knife Edge...but not for long. Conquer the game once, and there's no need to go back.

As the gunner on a spaceship, you must shoot down alien spacecraft, whether you're flying solo or with four players via split-screen.

KE's decent controls (the ship flys itself, but you control the targeting cursor) and well-rendered environments are held back by its flat-looking bogies, and both the music and the sound effects are repetitive. There are a multitude of sub-paths within each stage, which adds variety to the gameplay, but full 3D mobility would've been better. KE makes a fine rental if you're looking for a trigger-happy release.

ProTips:

  • Flying bogies home in on you, so keep your target near center for maximum impact.
  • The bosses are huge, but their sweet spots are tiny. Don't waste ammo on anything else.

Snapshots and Media

Nintendo 64/N64 Screenshots

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