I remember
this one! Way back
in the mists of time,
when the SAM
Coupe was still no
more than a SAM hatchback
and Sir Clive Sinclair was dating
Bernadette (yes, that long ago!),
US Gold brought this out as a
full price £9.99 game. Some
raved about it, others raved at it,
still others said "Just what the
hell does it mean in the Grand
Scheme of Everything
anyway?". But, far more
importantly, what did
YS say?
I can't remember.
The basic idea is to
fight your way (and a
friend can fight his way
too if you're in two-player mode)
through the four Forgotten
Worlds (planets that have been
occupied and emptied of life by
the Grand Baddy) and kill three
demigods to get to Emperor
Bios, the God of Destruction.
Knock him off and you've
finished the game. As with so
many shoot-'em-ups, of course,
when translated into English this
reads "go away and blast the
crap out of anyone and anything
you see - and don't come back
until one of the sides in this little
war is extinct". On the way, of
course, you can pick up money
left by dead baddies
(it's called Zennies -
isn't that what they
had in
Black Tiger?)
and use it to buy
bigger and better
weapons in the
shops half way
through each level.
Standard shoot-'em-up material, you might say, but
the slight 'rush-job' feel to it
meant it wasn't quite good
enough for a full priced game.
Which means it makes for a
much more compensating
budget buy. Featuring all the
normal, um, features of a mega-amazing sideways blast, and
more! Full colour, shops with
add-on weapons, 128K music,
eight-way firing, two (count them
- two!) players at once and, best
of all, no brain power needed at
all - just blow everything away.
It's quite brill, really, although
the slightly Wacko Jacko control
system (i.e. You can't fire and
move at the same time or you'll
end up twirling all over the place
and pointing the wrong way
round) is a bit of a prob. Not the
best re-released shoot-'em-up
ever, but still a promising
contender. Has Christmas come
early this year?
(Er, no. It's still
summer. Ed)
| Arcade version screenshot... |
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| Click here to view all 4 pics |
| Ratings given by other magazines |
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| Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database |
