This is one of my favorite shoot em up games of all time. It's once again another entry from that wonderful company that is one of the great kingdoms of the shoot 'em up Topelan.
The graphical presentation is crisp and well detailed, each of the levels are well designed and layered. Really like how each of them are different and memorable as you never truly know what you're about to come across next. My favorite level is the Egyptian level which I just thought was cool, there is always something cool about attaching the sci-fi element to ancient Egypt, in a way that level sort of predates the show "Stargate SG-1". I like the design of the ship which kind of looks and reminds me a little of the Gunstar ship from the movie "The Last Starfighter", so whenever I play this game, I sometimes imagine I'm playing a licensed game based on that film.
The enemies are a solid variety and each with different attack patterns and placements but like in all shoot em ups what make them even deadlier is that in each level it's always changes, there are never more of the same kind which keeps the game fresh and really gives your adjustment and adaptation muscles a workout. Of course, my favorite kind were in the Egypt level with the floating sphinx heads, shooting tombs, and plenty more beautiful strangeness you have to see to believe.
There isn't a variety of weapons to pick up, but that's because you really don't need them, you just need your primary weapon. The good news is you can build it up, as you collect more of the firing power ups your lasers have more power. What truly makes the game unique is the fact you can change the direction of your discharges. You can shoot backwards, forwards, up, down and four-way directional, whichever direction you need to from whatever enemies come your direction. In a way the game is also a puzzle game because it's all based on timing. Throughout the game the obstacles are always steps ahead of you and you have a limited amount of time to take the right course of action to eliminate them.
Another thing that adds to the uniqueness are the boss battles, they're not the standard ones you'd expect from any shooter but are puzzles too. They're divided into two stages as the boss is formatted one way, but after you get though that stage there is another and the boss is something else entirely. You really must adapt quickly and figure out the best method of attack to get though the stages and take the boss down.
Of course, another of the highlights of the game is the music, this game has a lot of fun and memorable music tracks, but each of them just have that electrical vibe and energy that just really sings out fast action.
The game is no doubt on the hard side so don't be surprised if your ship gets shot down again and again; it's one of those games you must put practice and perseverance with. Though it really is possible to get though most of the game smoothly and with minimum problems, like with a lot of hard games once you know where things are and where and when to hit them. All of this is why I recommend the game more for the veteran shoot em up fans who love a tough challenge, of course you can guess I'm one of them.
This vintage shoot em up classic is one hell of a challenge and a hell of a lot of fun.
Rating: 4 stars.
The graphical presentation is crisp and well detailed, each of the levels are well designed and layered. Really like how each of them are different and memorable as you never truly know what you're about to come across next. My favorite level is the Egyptian level which I just thought was cool, there is always something cool about attaching the sci-fi element to ancient Egypt, in a way that level sort of predates the show "Stargate SG-1". I like the design of the ship which kind of looks and reminds me a little of the Gunstar ship from the movie "The Last Starfighter", so whenever I play this game, I sometimes imagine I'm playing a licensed game based on that film.
The enemies are a solid variety and each with different attack patterns and placements but like in all shoot em ups what make them even deadlier is that in each level it's always changes, there are never more of the same kind which keeps the game fresh and really gives your adjustment and adaptation muscles a workout. Of course, my favorite kind were in the Egypt level with the floating sphinx heads, shooting tombs, and plenty more beautiful strangeness you have to see to believe.
There isn't a variety of weapons to pick up, but that's because you really don't need them, you just need your primary weapon. The good news is you can build it up, as you collect more of the firing power ups your lasers have more power. What truly makes the game unique is the fact you can change the direction of your discharges. You can shoot backwards, forwards, up, down and four-way directional, whichever direction you need to from whatever enemies come your direction. In a way the game is also a puzzle game because it's all based on timing. Throughout the game the obstacles are always steps ahead of you and you have a limited amount of time to take the right course of action to eliminate them.
Another thing that adds to the uniqueness are the boss battles, they're not the standard ones you'd expect from any shooter but are puzzles too. They're divided into two stages as the boss is formatted one way, but after you get though that stage there is another and the boss is something else entirely. You really must adapt quickly and figure out the best method of attack to get though the stages and take the boss down.
Of course, another of the highlights of the game is the music, this game has a lot of fun and memorable music tracks, but each of them just have that electrical vibe and energy that just really sings out fast action.
The game is no doubt on the hard side so don't be surprised if your ship gets shot down again and again; it's one of those games you must put practice and perseverance with. Though it really is possible to get though most of the game smoothly and with minimum problems, like with a lot of hard games once you know where things are and where and when to hit them. All of this is why I recommend the game more for the veteran shoot em up fans who love a tough challenge, of course you can guess I'm one of them.
This vintage shoot em up classic is one hell of a challenge and a hell of a lot of fun.
Rating: 4 stars.
