A late 80s eye-opener on the bright future ahead for home gaming? Basically and very effectively: a vibrant nautical Space Invaders.
In this upgraded arcade blaster, aptly named, the landscape around your tiny vessel is immediately scrolling downwards, forcing you through a landscape strange yet familiar. With this greater freedom of movement came also vulnerability from above and below, requiring cannons at the front and behind.
Clusters of tiny molluscs and other deep sea-inspired forms and fauna had to be negotiated or dealt with quickly. Rolling and spinning fish-like creatures - a vibrant array - threatened you at every moment, or passed by oblivious. They would also react differently under fire, meaning shooting them was not always the best decision (although for cash purposes rewarding later). Such enemies - bursting from the scenery, coral or organic decor - had to be surveyed before blasting.
But somehow we did blast our way almost out of there on this incredible and over-challenging 2D voyage. Maybe it was by picking up important ‘mods’ drifting occasionally across the cosmos. And by making every hit count towards the chance of souping up - or selling off - these vital enhancements if we reached the next oasis; a sudden arrival in a funky weapons shop. Here, as pilots - breathing a sigh of relief - we were served by some squid-like alien in order to pimp-up our hardy ship or gain credits.
Clusters of tiny molluscs and other deep sea-inspired forms and fauna had to be negotiated or dealt with quickly. Rolling and spinning fish-like creatures - a vibrant array - threatened you at every moment, or passed by oblivious. They would also react differently under fire, meaning shooting them was not always the best decision (although for cash purposes rewarding later). Such enemies - bursting from the scenery, coral or organic decor - had to be surveyed before blasting.
But somehow we did blast our way almost out of there on this incredible and over-challenging 2D voyage. Maybe it was by picking up important ‘mods’ drifting occasionally across the cosmos. And by making every hit count towards the chance of souping up - or selling off - these vital enhancements if we reached the next oasis; a sudden arrival in a funky weapons shop. Here, as pilots - breathing a sigh of relief - we were served by some squid-like alien in order to pimp-up our hardy ship or gain credits.
It got harder. The key to the game lay in those relaxing pit-stops, or the drifting mods, that if wrongly selected, or missed, would leave you dangerously under-powered for the next stage.
And every level burned brighter with more imaginative sea fauna and continually attacking creatures of the spacey nautical deep.
Then at the end lay waiting a Big Boss like the one-eyed Crustacean, at the end of level 1. But also more elaborate mods or interesting weapons beyond.
Music was specially created by Bomb the Bass (although with a Sound Blaster sound card, which also enhanced explosions beyond the range of the tinny PC speakers)! You could say this was the birth of the lucrative game-music tie-in.
Concentration has never been so focused. By the last levels your ship resembles a titanic war machine laser-beaming everything in its wake, but still being frequently overwhelmed.
How many more games have re-created organic life in such a vivid, immediate and exciting shooter? And there must be so many ocean creatures just waiting to be brought into a game setting again and brought to life. Thank-you Bitmap Brothers.
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