Revolution X

"Even the Genesis can't down size Steven Tyler's lips...."

Shooting games in which you take on the world have many faces, and many forms in the arcade world, but none other are more disturbing than the Revolution X! Featuring the different members of the ageless band Aerosmith, you're charged with rescuing them and stopping an evil organization from sucking all the fun out of the world! It's a strange shooting game that feature machine guns and terrorists, but no grenades switching them up for explosive CD's instead. Through several different stages, you'll shoot enemies that seem to get more and more redundant while trying to uncover the hidden locations of Aerosmith band members! What the game offers here on the Genesis, is the ability to recreate the horror of the arcade version, with no real improvements and if anything, there are several down grading elements to the game that really put the nails in the coffin. The story and the paths are all the same as well as the weapons you use and the same stupid music, even though it is somewhat recreated there are no vocals and the visuals have taken a downslide for the worse!

As most shooters go, Revolution X doesn't offer anything new, and is really more like Operation Wolf and Terminator 2 than it is an innovative game. You'll travel through several different stages and try to find the kidnapped members of Aerosmith by shooting everything in sight. In most cases though, you'd be better off just trying to keep yourself alive, as the enemies gather in endless numbers and all take pot shots at you when they get the chance! If you rescue all of the members, and save the various kidnapped women, you'll get a special show at the end of every stage as well as a special ending when you finally get through to the end. Now, getting to the end is almost impossible, simply because the game doesn’t seem to move slow enough for you to shoot anything. The challenge level on each stage is so ridiculously high, that using a Game Genie is probably your best bet unless you’re as inhuman as the computer is! Not only that, but the overall mechanics of what you have to shoot and what it is that you have to find are so mismatched, that playing through more than once isn’t worth the time, effort or torture that you’re sure to encounter. If you really want to torture a friend, then you can have them play with you, which is probably sweet revenge for all the times they screwed you over!

The Genesis controller was just too damned slow and the firing rate is ridiculous. With the stiff way that the Genesis controller moves, you’ll be hard pressed to actually hit what it is that you’re aiming for. In certain stages, you need to have pinpoint accuracy with certain parts of the mission, but in the end, you’ll find that the game doesn’t allow you that much slack, simply because the game is made for a light gun! With that being said, moving your crosshair around the screen is a test in patience and you’ll need every bit of it, simply because the game doesn’t allow you the speed to kill everything and shoot what it is that you have to. The addition of CD's as your explosive arsenal completely puts you at a disadvantage because even though you can pick them up just about anywhere, they're a pain in the ass to use and use effectively!

Aerosmith Music! Somebody shoot me and put me out of my misery please! All you have to listen to through the various stages is the constant remising of Moves Like A Lady and a couple of their other ''hits'' that made them famous back in the eighties and nineties. It really is pathetic and the sound effects of gunfire and tinny sounding explosions are enough to make your ears bleed! The Genesis doesn’t help matters any because the words of the music are gone. This could be a blessing and a curse, but the overall music of the game still remains directed in Aerosmith style, with rehashing of their hits being blared on the speakers. If there is any sense in your head, you’ll find the mute button and shut that crap off before it drives you to insanity. Listen to your favorite music on the stereo and leave this off, because the Genesis does it no justice and Aerosmith has no talent!

The game is grainy, and it shows. Enemies show up as grainy figures and pixilated figures, and even the Aerosmith band members don't look right, which isn't saying much! The stages move by too fast to really pay attention to, and the mindless destruction that you cause doesn't allow anything that you haven't already seen. The Genesis hardware doesn’t seem to help this cause much, and you’ll find that the game looks worse than it did before. The characters you fire on are more or less blobs of color that range from black to dark blue and have no real detail to them. Close up shots of these enemies show a very wide range of pixels and blocks that are rather sickening to see, even in a Genesis game that carries this name!

A sickening attempt at cashing in by a band that should be put out to pasture or even better, shot. The game itself is rather interesting in the different missions that you can perform, even though it is all straightforward and linear in the end. Genesis owners should avoid this piece of trash like the plague considering all of the technical problems as well as being piled onto the lack of fun involved here! If you’re an Aerosmith fan, and you’re a Genesis owner then this game is definitely up your alley without much more than thought. If you're looking for a shooter that will keep your attention, look elsewhere, because this one features nothing more than Steven Tyler and his huge ass lips staring back at you!

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/01, Updated 12/02/01