PLAYERS: 1-2 simultaneous
PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Sega
GENRE: Action
RELEASE DATE: 01/18/87 – (JP), 04/87 – (US), 1987 – (EU)
The name ‘Quartet‘ is a bit misleading, I’m afraid. When the original arcade version was released in 1986, the game allowed four player simultaneous action. When Sega ported the game to the Master System, however, they eliminated two of the characters, thus making the title ‘Quartet‘ a bold-faced lie. The Master System version kept the Quartet name while Sega of Japan changed the name to Double Target for the Mark III. While the latter makes sense, I imagine this may have confused players looking for a home port of Quartet. On the other hand, if the quartet of characters has been reduced by two, are they not a duo or perhaps, as the Japanese title suggests, two space warriors with prices on their heads?
Futile reasoning aside, Quartet is a just-fun-enough side-scroller that doesn’t need four players to be enjoyable. The first player always controls Mary, the stern, yet vivacious space babe, while the second player always controls Edgar, the bald spaceman who may or may not have inspired Riddick. Both characters jump and shoot their way across an alien base comprised of six levels. The base itself is overrun with maniacal robots, robots who never truly die. While they seemingly disappear after a hit or two from your space blaster, they’ll quickly reappear in a puff of smoke a second later. Enemies’ constant reappearance and aggression towards Mary/Edgar gives the player a sense of urgency to get through the level as quickly as possible.
The goal in each level is to kill the boss, collect the key the boss drops, and make your way to the exit. It is possible to just jump and shoot your way through each level, but the best strategy is to find the jet pack and hover around enemies, shooting only those you need to progress. Enemies reappear so frequently that, unless you’re going for a large score, it’s not worth it to try to shoot them all. The jet pack is doubly important because many of the boss battles take place against creatures who can fly or maneuver very quickly around their designated area. If you don’t have a jet pack and you’re trying to shoot airborne bosses on foot, you’ll get frustrated and likely die very quickly.
It’s Quartet‘s quirks that endear me to it, though. For example, I like that neither Mary nor Edgar have life bars, but they can each get hit several times before they die. Usually, if a character doesn’t have a life bar in a game, it means they get killed in one hit. Quartet, like Lindsey Buckingham, goes its own way. Sega’s visual commitment to the game’s generic story is commendable, as well. The deeper you move into the base, the more cold and lifeless the level designs become, as if the robots are taking it over from the inside out. There’s also secret stars that you can find in each level as added replay value. While I’m not sure what happens when you collect them all, stars in later levels are surprisingly well-hidden, so I’m sure the game rewards you in some fashion.
While there’s nothing significantly special about Quartet, the game has enough of a soul to keep one interested throughout the game’s entirety. Its fast pace, catchy tunes, and bizarre ambience kick off 1987 in style.
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12 replies on “Quartet (Master System, 1987)”
Oh man I love this game. I really loved the arcade game. The Master Sytem was a little bit of a letdown but it’s the same in spirit. I really love the music in the game. I still get the song stuck in my head to this day. This is more like a port of Quartet 2. Which was an arcade game that was basically called 2 because it was a two player version of the first game, like this one.
That’s right, Quartet 2. I meant to write about that, but… forgot? I guess?
To share here is the arcade version of the song.
http://youtu.be/VcEDEGeRlcg
I know it keeps getting mentioned, but dear god that box art – what was they thinking ?
Sounds a decent game though.
By 1987, Sega should have gotten their act together if they were seriously trying to compete with Nintendo. What were they thinking, indeed.
Its a well known story now. Despite the advantages the SMS had over the NES as you have said in previous Podcasts, Dylan, it was Nintendo’s marketing ability that made the NES such a hit. In the days before the internet review kids (and I am still guilty of this as a 30 year old) look at the box and think Wow that looks good and buy it. They looked at Sega’s box art in the 80s and said “That looks like it would be like the Atari 2600 I have at home.”
You totally have a life meter, it’s your points. Get to 0 points and you die. The points are always counting down so sitting in a “safe place” (which there is none) for too long will kill you. Also I think there’s a sound test but I can’t remember
Thanks for the comment, I will update the post to reflect this.
In the master system port, the levels will continue to loop until you have managed to find each star (one per level). I can’t remember if that unlocks a final boss, but I know that is the way to the end. The US release of the game’s instruction manual includes a description of how to get each star to appear.
but obviously if you get more points your life increases
The 1 star in levels 1-5 are needed to progress to the final level 6…if you don’t have all 5 stars from the 1st 5 levels…instead of going to level 6 you will have to replay the level or levels in which you didn’t get the stars….the final level..level 6 has no stars to collect….the stars are ALSO the keys to progress to the last level…..
And someone else beat me to this by, like, two years. I didn’t even see Adam’s comment until after the page refreshed. LOL