Previous Next

I first caught a glimpse of Typhoon at the beginning of the year when Konami introduced it into the arcades - and what do you know? Less than a year later what should fall from the sky but Imagine's conversion of the same game! So it's chocks away as you scorch downwards towards an aircraft carrier in your F14.

The basic idea is to fly through all the six levels of the game without losing your five lives. There's plenty of enemy aircraft around to put a stop to this, so you'd better make full use of the bombs amd smart-bombs that come as standard equipment. Bombs are activated by pressing 'B', while a quick press on 'M' brings the smart bomb into action - so if you've got one of those joysticks with rubber suckers on the bottom it would be a good idea to drag it out of the cupboard so that you've got one hand free for the keyboard.

Other weapons that can be collected along the way include Vulcan bombs, Three Way bombs, Lasers, Missiles and a fresh supply of standard bombs. These are collected in the usual way by collecting icons and pressing the space bar when the weapon you want is lit.

Even when you have a full complement of weapons on board, it's still pretty difficult to get to the higher levels - mainly because of the gun emplacements that crop up along the landscape at alarmingly regular intervals. The best thing to do is to take these out as quickly as possible - and when I say take out I don't mean take them to the pictures... get them before they get you!

Another hazard to watch out for is the appearance of the enemy's mega bombers These wouldn't be so dangerous if they flew in from the front like the rest of the enemy, but they don't - they sneak up from behind, and you never know when they re going to show up, so steer clear of the bottom of the screen.

Typhoon is a better shoot 'em up than it is a conversion. There are six increasingly difficult levels to keep trigger-happy fly-boys in the air for quite some time and the graphics and presentation are above average. My only gripe is that it doesn't really add anything to the already massive catalogue of shoot 'em ups that are already available, but if you do feel the need to buy yet another, you could do a lot worse.

Definitely one for the fans.

Fast and furious, but contains very little to make it outstanding.