Previous Next

This is a multi-stage arcade game that puts you behind the controls of a spacecraft facing a daunting challenge against hordes of deadly aliens. The stages vary quite a lot in nature but nearly all of them involve a whole heap of mindless blasting.

The aim is to penetrate the alien defences and destroy three cities with your "nukes". The defences are split up into different stages that appear in a set order and last for a set time. Some of them are dangerous to your ship which has a limited number of shields but together they combine to make a real war of attrition.

The display is forward from the ship which can be moved left and right to alter the view and has an instrument panel below. The only areas of real interest on this panel are the time and shield gauges. The top display is usually bare except for the "glass" surface the ship skims over and the hazards that sometimes appear.

The ship has lasers that fire into the centre of the screen, although there is no sight to show you the exact position. The first stage has a single random alien who appears in the distance and wobbles his way towards you, making him difficult to hit. Later versions of this have the alien moving more erratically and requiring more hits to get rid of him.

Other alien blasting stages include one where they pop up over the horizon to shoot at you and then duck down again, and one where upright aliens move horizontally past the display occasionally shooting. Some slightly different stages involve shooting bits off a slowly passing spacecraft and dodging pillars as they come towards you.

This last stage is a tough one because the pillars automatically move towards you and steering between them can be quite difficult at times. If the ship collides with one or gets stuck in front the shield gets knocked away very fast. At the end of each stage there is a slight pause before proceeding to the next.

Eventually you'll come to the city where a nuke is automatically released to destroy it but you'll probably end up asking yourself why you bothered. The graphics are disappointing, despite some nice alien designs, because there is little on screen and awful use of colour. The gameplay is terribly boring with stage after stage being repeated giving you the same task and requiring little in the way of skill or quick reactions. The whole thing is repetitive and predictable and won't even be of interest to a mindless shoot-'em-up fan.

This "game" is just about the most tedious thing I've ever seen. Nothing comes and gets you. The columns can be vaguely interesting at first, just because you have to actually do something about them but it doesn't last. The nuking sequence is a real damp squib, then it's just more of the same. At the end of all this it suggests you become a tax inspector/alien zoo-keeper/third rate zombie. If you paid good money for the program, it could have a point.

P. Several different types of stage.

N. Little happening on screen and bad use of colour.
N. Repetitive and unexciting gameplay.
N. Requires little skill and no thought.
N. A game can last for ages without even trying.