"An excellent, yet overlooked shooter"

An excellent, yet overlooked shooter

Granada is a very enjoyable, yet overlooked game that was released around 1990-91 by Wolf Team. In this 2d top-down view shooter, you control a tank inside fairly large levels. To get to the next level you must destroy several targets that are marked on your radar. This is one of my favorite little-known games for the Genesis. It really sparked my love for shoot-em'-ups when I first played it.

Graphics -
The Graphics for this game were very good for it's time. The backgrounds are very detailed and crisp, and in some levels the background is animated. The sprites are also quite detailed, and they look nice. There are many parts in this game that have quite a few moving enemies and particles on the screen with little slowdown.

Gameplay -
The gameplay in Granada is extremely fun. There are many different varieties of enemies. The bosses are fairly unique, and they seem to be just challenging enough in the beginning and somewhat difficult in later levels. The level design for this game was great. You do not have to follow a set path through the level, you can take out the targets that you are required to destroy in any order that you wish. There are also several, well hidden power-ups throughout the levels for you to find that make you shoot missiles for more damage. You use two main weapons in the game, a fast firing weapon, and a slower weapon that deals more damage. You will need to develop some strategy to determine witch works best on different enemies/bosses.

Sound/Music -
The music in Granada seems to match the pacing of the different levels quite nicely. I can hear a song from the game and instantly remember what level it is from. Some of the different level's songs are very catchy and will be stuck in your head for quite a while. The boss battles all use the same faster-paced song that sets your mood to make the boss battle more enjoyable. Nothing really stands out about the sound effects in this game. They are similar to most Genesis games of the time.

Overall –
If you are a fan of 2D Shoot-em'-ups I highly recommend that you find a copy of this game, it will not disappoint. The excellent gameplay and music give this game great replay value. It is a shame that this game went overlooked, as I consider it to be one of the best shooters for the Sega Genesis.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10 | Originally Posted: 01/17/07

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