Adrenalin

"Really grows on you. Know what else grows on you? Tumors."

Intro:

This was a fairly unique shooter made near the end of the Commodore's reign. It had potential, a lot of it. Unfortunately, it seems someone accidentally removed about 90% of the game.

Story: 4/10

Not too horrible. Apparently biological weapons have given rise to giant birds, and you have to stop them. About what you'd expect from a Commodore 64 game, and definitely not bad for a shooter.

Sounds: 2/10

Well, what can I say? They tried. They really did. They had a pretty okay backround track, and a nice piece that played during the game over screen. But no sound effects. Not one. Not when your ship explodes, not when you fire a bullet, not when you get a high score, not when you get a free guy(Which you don't ever do, by the way), not when you somehow manage to kill every enemy in a stage, not ever. They focused everything on the three pieces you do get; a mediocre theme, an alright game over theme, and an ending theme that'll make you wish the birds won.

Graphics: 4/10

The graphics aren't too bad. Each level has a backround, and extremely simple backround that consists of two colors, and that's only if you count black as a color. On the right of the screen is a seizure-inducing HUD, which constantly flashes. Your ship is two shades of brown, and the bugs are three shades of brown. The birds look like worms with wings, which wouldn't be so bad if they were meant to be bugs.

Gameplay: 2/10

I've gotta say, this game could have been awesome. You have to actually use a little strategy. There are about three times as many enemies as you have bullets, you can only move side to side, enemies always come in groups of about six, and they can shoot as rapidly as they want. You have three lives and no way to get any more. Unfortunately, enemies always come in the same pattern, so all you have to do is hit and run. And trust me, that is nowhere near as easy as it sounds.

I can tell you right now, you will not beat Stage 1 on your first, second, or even third tries. You will NOT make it through on your fourth, either, unless you're some super gamer. You might have a chance on your fifth, but if you do get through you'll probably have no bullets left long before the last wave. Why? Because of all of the last paragraph and two more things:
(1) The bugs fly so freaking close to where you are it isn't funny. (2) When you die, there is no pause. You're back in at the same spot fighting the same enemies that killed you a second ago. And I seriously mean a second ago. And every time you lose a life, you get an annoying "You have lost a live" message.

So what hope do you have? You have to become a god of shoot-'em-ups. It's the only way. You need to get in to where these birds are, dodge fire, time one of your precious shots perfectly(Each bullet can kill more than one enemy, but I've never seen a way to get more than four with one shot), and then get the Heck out of there before the next wave comes or the two or three stragglers cut you down. If you run out of bullets, all you can do is dodge, which is somehow boring, annoying, and difficult at the same time.

Now, let's say you do all that. You become the Space Shooter King. You're so good, you rocket past stage one. What do you get as your reward? The same thing with a few more bullets and twice as many enemies, and this time there's one that flies along the top of the screen, firing volley after volley of cannon fire and messing with your timing and making dodging much harder.

Somehow, you make it through. You beat Stage Two. You get the same thing on Stage Three, only now you have a few more bullets and twice as many enemies. Once again, you miraculously make it through. You beat Stage Three. Guess what? The game's over. You get an annoying screen, a stupid "OMG U WIN!" message, and a bad piece of music. That's really all there is.

Final Recommendation:

If you see it somewhere, buy it. Then destroy it.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/06