| | Port of a Toaplan vertical shooter, and it came out pretty well as far as control and graphics go: big sprites, and little slowdown.
In a way, the thing is way too easy, though: on a single credit I got through to, like, the fifth or sixth stage or something, and died more because I was getting tired (the stages are kinda long) than because the game was getting really hard.
It uses a separate-weapon powerup scheme, where you'll find different colored gems from time to time floating around the screen. The colors correspond to weapon type, and whatever color you get, you switch to that weapon. This sort of sucks, because the red gun seems to kick the crap out of the other weapons, so once you get red, you have to spend the rest of the game dodging the non-red powerups. Then there are "P" powerups that level up your weapons: the regular P just gives it a third of a level, but the rare red P gives you a full level right off. I got the red beam gun powered up to the point where it pretty much covered the screen with swinging, pulsing red tendrils of hot death, so all I had to do was hold down the fire button, and maybe pick up powerups for points if I felt like it. Even the bosses went down almost immediately. This was cool, in a way, if a little boring after a while. But then the game started sending ships right up from behind me, and one of them smashed into me. Wah. Had no heart for it after that, even though I had more men than could fit on the screen.
Oh, the bombs are pretty nice, too. And check out the little guys running around on your airfields at the beginnings of each stage; they sometimes make funny little formations. |
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