Previous Next

The frontier world of Basymth has come under attack from the Trimorg empire and an urgent call for help has gone out. Time is short, and five freighters are launched with human skeleton crews aided by maintenance droids. The cargo is a wide range of awesome battle droids. All goes well until the fleet reports it is being scanned from an uncharted asteroid field. Minutes later a frantic captain sends a fearsome message - the ship's crew has come under attack from their won battle droids, they can't hold out for long...

Three days later a rescue ship arrives. Beaming troops aboard the freighters is out of the question; the only hope is a prototype Influence Device. This remote-controlled device floats a metre above the ground, and although it carries a plasma gun, its principal defence is the ability to take over other droids' brains. Your plan is to use this machine to destroy all the fleet's droids...

The game has an overhead perspective, with the ship decks scrolling vertically. When the ID is in motion, pressing fire sends out a plasma bolt. If stationary, fire activates the influence spark - hold down fire and you can move around with it.

When the spark contacts another droid you go into the Transfer Game. This has a single screen with a Central Control Bar split into fourteen segments, with wires from left and right. You can pick which side to play from. The aim is to turn as many of the central segments to your colour by firing a limited number (depending on your current droid) of Pulsars down the wires. If two opposing Pulsars have been fired at the same segment, the one fired last wins. The exception is if a wire has an Auto-Pulsar - once hit it sustains the charge so this always wins the segment. There are also Splitter wires (divided to hit two segments), Terminators (dead-ends), Colour-Switchers (turn segment the wrong colour), and Joiners (two wires going to a single segment and requiring two Pulsars to work). At the end of the time limit if there's an equal number of Segments per side the game is repeated. If you have most Segments you take control of the droid. If you have least, your current droid (or if none, your ID unit) is blown up!

Each deck is divided up into fully furnished rooms. Although you can see the objects in another room, droids are invisible until the door opens. One of the most important items of furniture are the Energisers, which recharge power. Unfortunately controlled droids slowly burn out their maximum power potential, until eventually they self-destruct!

There are also lifts, to take you to other decks, and computers. Log onto a computer and it'll show you a deck plan, ship plan and how many droids remain active. If you control a droid it will also show you pictures and info concerning your droid, and all the other droids below it in power. There are fourteen droids, ranging from the sluggish vacuum cleaner to military robots such as dalek lookalikes and tanks!

There are also Raiders, aliens which are sent in if you don't take control of the freighter in time. If you succeed you move to the next freighter.

Paradroid '90 is a brilliant conversion, superbly capturing the essence of the original and playing extremely well. Once you get into the game, you don't really mind the lack of horizontal scroll.

In effect you've got two games in one with the transfer mode on/off toggle: the game is better with the transfer option as it allows for more tactical play. Five ships may not seem a lot but it's difficult enough coping with one deck, let alone one ship!

One gripe, why not a different style of graphics with each new level? It's immensely satisfying to conquer a ship but I'd have liked a bit more of a reward than just a different colour scheme.

What I do love about Paradroid '90 is the humour pervading the game: the ability to fry robots using the shuttle engines is neat, and the computers coming on with a 'whistle' brings forth a smile.

What cracked me up was when a drinks carrying servant robot entered the room where I (in the form of the ultimate 999 robot) was, realised what it faced and just as rapidly shut the door and legged it, brilliant!!!

More seriously, the varied ways the robots act is a superb demonstration of artificial intelligence; taking out one smart robot was like a replay of Alien!

C64 Paradroid was a Gold Medal-winning classic. Though graphically simplistic it worked so well that it takes a while to get used to the highly detailed 16-bit graphics. The multi-directional scrolling is now only vertical, and the droids aren't as fast so you can't go zooming around bouncing off the walls.

By way of compensation, the enemy droids are much more intelligent, reacting to their own detection systems and even using the energisers. Combat is also very much better. You can dodge behind tables - which powerful droids can destroy - and see individual bullets fly through the air.

The Amiga version also improves lastability with the ships being distinctly different in layout and toughness, if not particularly varied graphically. There's also the classic Paradroid frustration of making a bad transfer and being destroyed after almost finishing a deck.

But the ambition and work that has gone into this conversion are almost without parallel. Can anyone thing of a game so thoroughly rewritten in being converted? The whole game has been taken apart and redone, and while the game concept can't push the Amiga to its limits as it did on the C64, this is an example to all those people who do nothing more than gloss-up the graphics and sonics.

The proof of a classic is how well it stands the test of time. Loads of things have changed since the release of C64 Paradroid; then, beer were tuppence a pint...

But thankfully some things never change: in its new form, Paradroid '90 is just as addictive as ever. The purely vertical scrolling was a bit of a surprise after the multi-directional original, but it doesn't affect play.

I love the way the varied and intelligent robots hide behind doors and tables, ready to ambush you - the fact that you can't see robots beyond your ID's view creates a tense atmosphere, aided by subtly shaded backgrounds and a massive variety of superb sound FX.

The heart of the game, though, is the transfer system which is surely one of the greatest (and simplest) sub-games ever. Beautifully presented with perfect playability, Paradroid '90 is an ageless classic not to be missed.

Presentation 88%
Transfer Game optional, option to restart level, excellent droid pictures but no scene-setting intro text.

Graphics 87%
Only vertical scrolling, but incredibly detailed decks with some superb enemy droids.

Sound 84%
Good intro soundtrack, excellent in-game FX.

Hookability 92%
Instantly addictive, especially with Transfer Game optional.

Lastability 90%
Five ships provide a massive challenge, if not an immense amount of graphic variety.

Overall 90%
A state-of-the-art conversion of a legendary C64 game.