GamesWare's vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up for one or two players. Reviewed by Rob Gibson.

Note: This review was originally written for the Illusions disc magazine well before Acorn Arcade was born, so we make no guarantees that this game will work on more recent machines. Many thanks to Richard Goodwin, Phil Coleman and Rob Gibson for allowing us to reproduce this review on the site.

Like an Intercity express train the promised glut of 16-bit conversions finally seems to be appearing at this platform, a little late (try two or three years), but better late than never much to the relief of the paying punters that have been standing around waiting with only the Arc equivalent of Traveller's Fare to keep them going. Although there have been conversions in the past, the most notable amongst them being SWIV, Chuck Rock, James Pond, that other Bitmap Bros. conversion Gods etc., the coming of Xenon 2 looks likely to herald the start of a veritable feeding-frenzy of activity in companies around the country bringing us the cream of the crop of Amiga games.

It becomes evident that this is no ordinary conversion as soon as you double-click to load it. Up pops a sprite onto the desktop informing you that the game is indeed loading, a la Impression II, StrongEd2, The Hacker etc. After this the game installs itself on the iconbar, and you can jump in and out of the game as often as you please, although your position is lost and when you re-enter you have to start from the beginning again. It's a nice touch, and makes you feel as if you're dealing with professionals here, people who actually understand the Arc and can bring out it's full potential.

After clicking on the big blue space ship sitting at the bottom of the screen, the disk chugs away for a few seconds and as the credits fly (fairly) smoothly in and out of a face-on starfield effect, the strains of Bomb the Bass's funky tune 'Megablast' (which by a strange coincidence is the subtitle of the game) blasts out in glorious stereophonic sound. This rendition, although lacking some of the voice samples of the original (ie non-computer) version, is still of high quality; I was told that the Amiga actually used BTB's own samples, and on the conversion they certainly sound very true to both these previous formats. The tune plays over not only the credits at the start, but the game itself, and one over on the Amiga owners here, the full version is played throughout, whereas the poor half-Meg Commodore machine had to have the samples further reduced for the actual game tune. The tune can get a bit wearing even for a BTB fan like myself after a bit, and the options screen, which is just a keypress away from the credits, allows you to turn it off.

And so on to the game itself. The graphics are all that you've come to expect from the hype surrounding both the Amiga in general and the Bitmap Brothers in particular. Your ship, which travels upwards as in SWIV etc., tilts as you move sideways; thrusters burn as you move up or down; and when moving down, if you hit the bottom of the screen, the scrolling actually reverses and you go backwards. Beneath the rocks that border the screen scrolls two levels of parallax, namely a web of plantlife (amazing what can be achieved in just three colours) and a starfield effect. The rest of the graphics for this level look like the contents of a biology student's dreams the night before an important exam; this nightmarish world is inhabited by all manner of pulsating plants and rotating bugs, every one with atmospheric light sourcing. Spinning tokens and powerups, an oft-used Bitmap technique (see Speedball 2 when it comes out), are heavily featured also.

These graphics are achieved in the 16 colour mode 9.
Answers on a postcard as to why the 256 colour
Arc games don't even come close.

There are two ways of getting those all-important extras for your ship. The first are the crates that spin in from the left-hand side of the screen, which, when shot, reveal certain gifts such as speedups, rear fire, smart bomb etc. Secondly, as you kill more and more meanies, you can collect bubbles which are converted into cash for when you reach the shop; there's no warning as to when this happens, it just does, and you get to remember the area this occurs in.

"And as if by magic, the shopkeeper appears..."
Mr. Benn finds that those mushrooms
he had for tea last night might
not have been as harmless as they looked.

The shop is not only for buying new equipment, but for flogging off the old stuff as well. The best purchase was the "Nashwan", a short (10 second) taste of the complete works, every weapon available. This basically wipes out anything stupid enough to appear on the screen almost as effectively as a smart bomb, and is a great appetiser for the rest of the game.

Nashwan: makes Rambo look like Noddy.

And now for the obligatory moans. I found the game a little tough, as the ship is quite slow-moving and you have to fight the controls a little even with both speedups; this is not the conversion's fault, quite the reverse, it is a faithful copy of the original (too damn faithful!). Hence, this is not the sort of game you give to a younger child to keep them quiet, as they'd soon be bawling about how they got killed two seconds after the "Get ready" message disappeared. Perhaps it's just a little late in the day to be thinking of this, but I think the game should have an easier learning curve; let's face it, I couldn't get to the end of the level without designing a cheat mod, and there are four more levels to negotiate. However, if you like a challenge, you're in for a treat. Also, there are a few concessions to duffers like me; for instance, it is possible to hit the scenery at the sides without penalty, although it is equally possible to get stuck on a rock as several meanies come crashing towards you; when negotiating the maze-like rock formations, if you make a wrong turn it's always possible to back up as mentioned before. It takes some practice, but it is playable. Most of all, however, it's the sheer style that makes this game a must for the collection.

Certain Inferior Software
houses should take note:
this is a well-drawn end of level meanie.

Summary

It's hard, so not really for youngsters or beginners. It is extremely attractive however, and a very nice implementation; for example, the tracker player would crash if an old version of the VProtect module is present, so the game asks whether to switch off the module or abort the load. Also, it has A3010 joystick implementation built in. It won't however run on a StrongARM machine and there are other bugs to be aware of on earlier versions. Generally though, definitely a prestige item in the old collection.