"Metropolis
under fire" is the first of ten levels of the game and provides a good
example as to the varying nature of each attack wave that you will have to
tackle. Choose one of three available craft, which vary in speed or power, hit
the button and get transported right into the heart of the action.
The
action takes place above a sprawling city. Sky scrapers are everywhere, some
already burning, but most still intact. Search lights scan the sky in the
distance, trying to pick out targets without any success. You start at the left
of this 2-D environment and you have the freedom to move all over the screen.
The enemy usually attacks from the right of the screen and scrolls leftwards,
some will stay on screen for 30 seconds or so, others disappear within a few.
The
first attack wave consists of yellow spinning craft. They enter the battleground
in large groups and pause halfway through their maneuvers, before opening up to
reveal rapid fire lasers which are blasted simultaneously to clear the way ahead
for them. One good shot is enough to destroy these guys. More easy targets
follow and just as you start to think that this is going to be easy, a large
flying robot enters the screen (Looking very Similar to a "Transformer")
armed with a double barreled laser gun and a backpack that fires guided missiles
at you. This beast is over ten times the size of you and so if you think that
its going to be killed by just on shot, you are only kidding yourself! You now
have the simple choice of avoiding him for 30 seconds or so, at which point he
will leave the screen himself, or skillfully pick him off with 50 or more shots.
Take the second option and he will leave you a power-up as he explodes, this can
take the form of an additional main weapon, a shield, smart bomb, rockets, orbs,
lightning and more. Keep collecting the same power-up to improve its
effectiveness.
You hardly have time to wipe your brow before being
faced with 30 (YEAH THIRTY!) or more jet fighters moving at speed in circular
waves, all trying to pick you off. More massive ships follow, these ones don't
seem to want to leave the screen and take many shots to kill. They travel in
pairs and are fitted with a rotating turret that locks onto your position before
firing. Phew, onward we go, faced with wave after wave of space craft, circling
you before releasing double laser bolts at you. Spinning space stations trap you
with their interconnecting force fields, making them difficult to pick off -
again, the bigger and harder the alien the more chance of getting a power up by
defeating them. I use one of my smart bombs and manage to kill 3 out of four
immediately. One of the power ups is another smart bomb which is quickly used to
see of the fourth and final ship. Onwards again, past another transformer type
robot, this time its a dragon, with swishing tail and 4 way laser cannon, this
guy means business!
Finally you arrive at the end of level boss. In the
case of this level, it will try to crush you before opening up and firing a
massive laser cannon, two mini lasers and six missive launchers at you
simultaneously. You have to avoid its weaponry and fire what seems like hundreds
of shots at it before it will explode and let you move onto the next level of
the game.
The first level is brilliant, while being difficult, its by
no means impossible and you will find yourself facing the end of level boss
after only a few games. You will then move onto the "Command Tower",
which is based in the desert and has you flying past the pyramids to face giant
worms and ferocious wasps, blasting through large rocks which block your way
before changing tactics slightly as the screen starts to scroll vertically and
the enemy begins to fall from the sky.
"The Belt" is a
vertically scrolling stroll through your local asteroid field, followed by the "World
of Ice". It is at this point that I notice an annoying fault with the game
design, which looking back, seems to be evident in almost every level of the
game. You see when I play one of these games I like to think of it as a personal
challenge between the programmer and me, he can create as many aliens as he
likes and have them firing as much and as often as he likes without bothering me
in the slightest, after all who wants to buy a game and then complete it within
a day or two of purchase.... No, the thing that became evident, was so annoying
that It very nearly stopped me playing the game altogether. Certain parts of the
scrolling scenery will kill you on contact, again this would not be a problem
were it not for the fact that its too hard to see which bits are just harmless
pretty background decoration and which are deadly ship-busting pieces of rock or
debris. This means that you not only have to avoid the multitude of lasers,
missiles and bombs that are flying around the screen in all directions, you have
to look out for practically invisible bits of deadly scenery. The number of
times that I lost lives because of this was absolutely stupid. In an effort to
get around this problem, I tried the game on several T.V`s which gave mixed
results. On a 28 inch T.V and a 14 inch T.V the problem persisted, however when
I plugged my machine into a 14 inch monitor, the screen was razor sharp and it
was easier to see this annoying scenery. I just wonder if everyone who tested
this game did so on monitors rather than T.V`s, because such a niggling little
oversight has relegated this game from being a classic, to being just another
shoot em up..... roll on X3!
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