The Neo Geo had so many great games that sadly have fallen away from public awareness. Some of these have seen a resurgence lately thanks to Arcade Archives, and this includes Spin Master. Spin Master was a side-scrolling action game that merged platforming and shoot ’em up elements to create a unique experience. You started out with a Yo-Yo but could gain other weapons like fireballs, ice shards, bombs and ninja stars. The best way to describe it was Data East taking what worked from their Joe and Mac series, and removing everything that did not.
Spin Master was one of the more innovative Data East games at the time, and showed just what the company was capable of. Of course there had been platformers with shooting before, like Mega Man, but not that many combined the Mario approach of jumping on the enemy, with run and gun elements. Of course an issue was that those games that did combine the two often had a handicap to force you into one mode or another such as forcing you to jump after running out of ammo.
Spin Master was different though, in that it gave you a choice of how to go about things. This gave you many more ways of attacking enemies and that made things a lot more fun. There is a sense of wonder that is timeless and there game has beautiful cartoon-like visuals that have aged well and even look great today when played on a big screen tv. Data East even gave the game a neat story, albeit a limited one, and multiple endings. They went above and beyond what was expected of an arcade game, and there is a degree of polish here missing from many modern games. There is so much here that would work in gaming today. Especially since the visual style would not need to be changed that much.
The game has so much going for it that would work today as a new game, and games like Cuphead show there is still a market for cartoonish games run n gun games. Cuphead is also known for its difficulty, and I think Spin Master could serve as a good in between for gamers who want that experience. There is too much good to be left in the past here, a Flying Tiger Entertainment is bringing some new experiences based on Data East games for their Johnny Turbo’s Arcade line. This game is a perfect choice to receive a new rendition and they should very much consider doing so. Spin Master is a work of art and should be appreciated by many more.