C&VG


Silkworm

Author: Paul Glancey
Publisher: Virgin Games
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #93

Silkworm

Wa-hey! It's wartime again, and as usual, you're in the thick of things, piloting your supercharged helicopter over land and scrolling sea towards the enemy's favourite nuclear reactor, which you have to blow up. Luckily, you can bring a friend along, and while you tear through the sky, he chugs along the ground in a jumping jeep.

Both vehicles are armed with an unlimited supply of missiles (Silkworms?) which fire two at a time, the helicopter simultaneously launches a rocket diagonally downward, and the jeep has a directable launcher in the back.

This being one of those "you against unassailable odds" sort of games, you and your jeepster chum are joined by the entire enemy air force as well as much of their armored ground forces. All sorts of weird and wonderful whirlybirds swoop about the airways launching heat-seekers at you, and on later levels jet fighters zoom at you out of a clear sky. Providing extra grief are goosecopters, which fly onto the screen piece by piece and can only be shot by dodging under the "head" and firing at the "neck". Pretty tricky when the sky is full of missiles which are locked onto your bum! If you manage to shoot the goosecopter it leaves behind an extra weapon - double firepower, speed-ups, rapid fire - the usual stuff.

Silkworm

Meanwhile, on the ground there are tanks, missile carriers which fire eight shots simultaneously, rocket launching robots, SAM sites and underground missile silos which fires ICBMs at you. The jeep is caused particular problems by land mines, but if the helicopter shoots them, they turn into sparkly clouds providing an energy shield for whoever picks them up. Shoot the cloud or pick it up when you already have a shield and *Kabooma!* - it becomes a smart bomb.

Actually, it's loud noises like this that make the Amiga version really worth playing. Shooting anything produces the kind of sound effects that induce shell shock in the dog and give flashbacks to TV Vietnam veterans. Turn up the volume and the neighbours will think you're re-filming Apocalypse Now in your bedroom.

Graphics are equally slick - super smooth parallax scrolling and loads of neatly detailed sprites. I mean, the jeep even leaves a cloud of dust when it jumps for goodness sake! Even when the screen is packed out with pursuing rockets there's no loss of speed or smoothness.

Silkworm

Surprisingly enough, gameplay lives up to the presentation. A three-credits system should let any experienced blaster through the first few levels without too much trouble, but after that things get very fast and furious. You can be dodging several homing missiles at once, blasting helicopters and watching squadrons of jets taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the distance. "Action-packed" is a very applicable term and if Silkworm doesn't quicken your pulse, you must be in a coma.

Spectrum

Obviously lacks some of the visual and audio wonderments of the 16-bit versions, but the Spectrum version is nonetheless a very playable and addictive blast.

Atari ST

Lacks the explosive sound effects of the Amiga version, and it's not quite as smooth, but the gameplay is just as good.

Amiga

Tremendous sound, super-smooth graphics and fiendishly addictive gameplay puts this amongst the cream of Amiga shoot-'em-ups.

Paul Glancey

Other Spectrum 48K/128K/+2/+3 Game Reviews By Paul Glancey


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