Cannon Spike

Cannon Spike
European Dreamcast cover art
Developer(s)	Psikyo
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Designer(s)	Yoshiki Okamoto, Tatsuya Minami, Kinu Nishimura
Composer(s)	Masaki Izutani, Toshiya Kobayashi, Kaori Kumakura, Kensuke Sato
Platforms	Arcade, Dreamcast
Release date(s)	Arcade 2000 Dreamcast NA November 14, 2000 JP December 21, 2000 EU May 3, 2002
Genre(s)	Multi-directional shooter
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously

Cannon Spike, known as ガンスパイク (Gunspike) in Japanese arcades, is a multi-directional shooter arcade game released in 2000 by Psikyo and later in the same year for the Sega Dreamcast by Capcom. It uses Capcom-designed characters and runs on Sega's Naomi Hardware. Cannon Spike is similar to games like Smash TV and Capcom's Commando, although with primary focus on boss fighting. Cannon Spike is noted as one of the last games released for Dreamcast in Europe, published by Big Ben and exclusively sold at retail in Game outlets.

Cannon Spike is the name of a trademark attack performed by Cammy, a character from the Street Fighter series of video games and one of the protagonists of this title. "Cannon Spike" is Cammy's signature move where she performs an upward kick at her opponent.

Due to its low print run, the North American Dreamcast version of "Cannon Spike" is considered a collector's item.

Characters

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

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

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

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

On release, Famitsu magazine scored the Dreamcast version of the game a 30 out of 40. The game holds a 69.69% score at GameRankings.

External links

• Cannon Spike / Gunspike at Sega Scream
• Cannon Spike at HardcoreGaming101