Previous Next

You find yourself a lonely outcast, banished from your Galaxy by invading alien forces. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel - if you can infiltrate the aggressor's starbase and destroy their headquarters, your people will be released and you will be free to return home. This is a mission of honour... and it could be your last.

The mission begins over the first alien landscape, scrolling beneath your ship in eight directions. Guiding your ship across the region's sixteen sectors, you destroy as many of the land-based targets and attack craft as possible.

A fleet of four ships is made available to complete the mission, and these explode on contact with enemy fire, ships or installations.

The ship is equipped with state of the art weaponry - including five smart bombs - and picks up extra armament from the remains of ground targets which have been destroyed. A round token appears bearing a letter corresponding to the item of equipment carried - crossing this installs the hardware onto the craft. Each item lasts for a specific amount of time, indicated by a small bar timer below the main screen.

A scanner is displayed at the bottom of the screen showing the remaining ground units. Alongside is a decreasing energy bar which signals the damage inflicted on the enemy forces. When this has completely disappeared the guardian mothership enters - the destruction of which allows access to the next landscape.

The programming house involved with this conversion should be sharply rapped across the knuckles, as they obviously have no idea of presentation.

At the start of each game, a long introduction has to be endured before the action begins, and another long end piece and a very clumsy high-score table are the penalty for finishing the mission. It would be nice if you could have the option to skip this awful rigmarole every time.

The graphics lack crispness and definition and there are some annoying quirks in the gameplay which rankle and ultimately spoil the limited fun that's on offer. If you're after a shoot-'em-up, shop around - the market is full of them and there are plenty better than this.

My initial impressions of this game weren't favourable, mainly due to the shoddy graphics and diabolical introductory sequence. To make matters even worse, the flat, bland backdrops are awful, and the aimlessly flitting sprites look really grotty.

The gameplay isn't that bad though, and that's the most important thing. Once you get into it, the blasting action becomes quite addictive, and I found myself returning to it quite a few times to see whether I could get a little further.

The awkward presentation and long wait between games is incredibly annoying, but otherwise the Last Mission proves to be a mildly compelling shoot-'em-up.

This latest offering from the Data East/US Gold relationship is a bit on the poor side. The ship control is slightly clumsy - I would have preferred a rotate left/rotate right/forward control rather than the 'point in the direction that you want to go' method used here - and just to make things even more difficult, the collision detection tends to favour the alien vessels.

Another drawback is that you can destroy all of the ground targets, only to die while attacking the guardian mothership - then, on restarting, the alien's urban renewal project has sprung into operation and all the previously destroyed buildings and installations are back in one piece!

Last Mission has all the ingredients of an enjoyable game, however it is sadly lacking in refinement.

Presentation 41%
Sparse options and inadequate documentation. There's also an annoying delay between games while a pointless message is slowly typed on screen.

Graphics 59%
The smoothly scrolling backdrops are detailed but unimaginative, and the tiny sprites also seem to lack any sort of graphical inspiration.

Sound 60%
The option to choose between tune or effects makes little difference.

Hookability 63%
The awkward control method causes slight confusion at first - persevere however, and it's soon mastered.

Lastability 42%
The lack of compulsive action makes the faults in the gameplay even more annoying.

Overall 49%
An average arcade conversion which doesn't ever approach its full potential.