Previous Next

If you thought that Starion was just a good shoot-'em-up by Timegate out of Elite, then read on ...

The control panel lies in front of you, comprising head up display of scanners, velocity, hull temperature, lives, pitch/roll/yaw indicators etc. Through the cockpit window a huge variety of enemy ships weave, pitching their missiles in the smoothest motion yet seen. Not a nicker. Drawn in wireframe, 3D, vector graphics, they have real depth as they attack, and if all you had to do was blast them via keyboard or joystick, this would be an excellent, if unoriginal, game.

It isn't, however. As you down each ship, its cargo, in the form of a letter, must be loaded. Get the lot in your time sector, then the on-board computer asks you to rearrange the letters to spell something stolen from the Earth by the aliens. You must then select the year in which it belongs, warp through time, and land on the planet - avoiding alien ships as you go - thus correcting history. Do it once, you become a Chronotourist, but to become Creator, 243 zones must be unscrambled. Land in the wrong year, a clue will help you see what went wrong, and you must battle again to access another zone, a rare mixture of arcade and intellectual challenge. Superb!

Have this freebie on me: E.E.C. is found in 1968, and belongs in 1957, but will somebody please tell me what HORSEAID stands for and where it belongs? I'm going bananas!

D.M.