Previous Next

The classic Commodore shoot-'em-ups are Uridium and Sanxion - but now there's a new contender for the title, Octapolis. Quite simply, it's awesome. Brilliant graphics, sounds like you won't believe and addictive gameplay that shakes the C&VG scale.

The whole thing has been put together by Jukka Tapanimaki, a Finnish programmer destined for big things - just like his fellow countryman Stavros Fasoulas, he seems able to squeeze things out of the C64 that you thought just couldn't be done.

Things like the huge - almost arcade quality - monsters, which appear in the platform part of the game.

But before we get on to details let's take a look at the plot.

By the year 3987, the Galactic Imperium was mightier than ever. One by one, it had swallowed up all solar systems and alien races. The dreaded fleets of the Imperium were feared all over the Galaxy, and with good reason: one fully-armed battle cruiser was enough to blow up a whole planet. No one was strong enough to resist the power of the Imperium.

Except for a small defiant planet which had eight towering cities rising about its barren surface: the planet of Octapolis.

Its secret weapon was one of enormous mental power. In the vicinity of the planet, the most valiant enemy space warrior because a bumbling idiot and even the most sophisicated artificial intelligence began to contradict the Laws of Robotics.

The Imperium hasn't attacked the planet of Octapolis for centuries. To space pilots it was just a black spot on the space map, the Zone of the Evil Eye, as they called it.

No-one even dared to talk about Octapolis any more, but in the deep secrecy of the Galactic Intelligence Agency (GIA) a most cruel and desperate series of experiments was carried out.

They kidnapped innocent space pilots, and sent them inside the zone, and hoped that somehow, somewhere, they could find one who was immune to the immense mental power of Octapolis.

If they could only reduce it just a little, then a galiant battle cruiser could get close enough to wipe out the planet. It took the GIA 200 years to find such a pilot - you are that pilot!!

Once the game has loaded and Wally Beben's rocky soundtrack is pulsing away you see the split screen shoot-'em-up screen. The top half shows a side view of your ship and the alien attackers the bottom half shows a bird's eye view of your ship and the city.

Doesn't matter which part of the screen you use to blast away at your attackers - but you'll need to use the bottom part of the split screen to line your ship up over the landing field, Uridium style, when the time comes.

You don't need to keep your finger on the fire button as blasting is automatic. But hold down the fire button to control the ship in the lower half of the screen.

Score enough points and an alarm sounds which tells you you can land - but it's a good idea to stick around building up points until you've got an extra life. You'll need it in the city sections which follow.

Once inside the city your view changes to a platform style screen - with each of the five city levels inhabited by various nasties, including those giant monsters and E.T.-lookalikes.

Here you control a small laser armed spaceman who jumps and dodges and zaps his way through the hazards.

Survive the five city screens and then it's back into the ship for another zapping session. And so it goes.

I have to say that I found the flying bits had the edge over the platform screens - but as a whole the game is just brilliant fun! Get it today.