"Warms the heart, hurts the eyes, and fries the brain. How's that for a terrible game?"

Intro
Woohoo! I made a rhyme! Anyway, if you've ever been to a store display that had VirtualBoy back when it was coming out, you might've stopped to play this game and severely scrambled your mind just a bit. After playing it, your brain gets a very light sensation and you feel almost as though you are dreaming. Pretty bad, huh?

OOO! Flying Red Wires!
I'm not quite sure what's going on in Red Alarm. Hmm... so why not create our own little makeshift storyline?!?! What's usually typical about flight games like this? Could it be that aliens are attacking the Earth and another brave pilot has decided to battle against the forces of ''evil.'' Or not. I'm not quite sure what's going on so let's just say it's some maniac hopelessly flying around and killing everything because it's hurting his eyes just as bad is it is ours.

What... Is This?
The game plays a bit like Star Fox. You fly in a 3D ''world'' (more like a confined area) shooting enemies out of the ''sky.'' The gameplay kept me interested at first. Eventually, I found that I just couldn't tell what the hell was going on anymore, as I was blazed out of my mind thanks to graphics. I think what could've saved this game would've been a better sense of direction. There were so many times that I just didn't know whether or not I was going in the right direction or just randomly flying. I felt as though I was just sort of poking around in the dark. What this game could've used was some depth...

Vectors vs. Pixils
Personally, I take sprites to untextured vectors anyday (except with classic arcade games like old school Asteroids or Tempest). That's just my opinion, though. I think it gives the game a much better complexion and makes the environment a lot easier to comprehend if you have a variance of colors. That was also one downfall of VirtualBoy was the lack of color. Another graphical downfall which probably was the cause of the head-swimmy feelings you get from this game was the rather buggy and almost hypnotic framerate mixed with red lighting. Sure, I guess you could say I got a kick out of that dreamy state I was in the first time I played this game, but after the second time, I thought I was going to go crazy. No thank you, I'll stick to easier framerates.

Improvements?
There is LOADS of room for improvement here. First off, ditch the vector-based graphics. They're killer on the eyesight. Add some textures, even if they are red, to the game. Give it a definite purpose. Make the levels a lot easier to navigate. I want to actually know I'm going the right way and not just flying towards an arbitrary destination in the middle of nowhere. Make the sounds a bit easier to stomach, please.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: OWW! My eyes are burning! 3/10
Sounds: Now my ears are bleeding! (pretty blah music) 2/10
Controls: ...And my fingers are breaking one by one! 3/10
Plot/Storyline: No! Now my brain is becoming a viscous liquid! N/A (okay, so I don't know what the storyline is, but I wanted to add the brain part into this)
Gameplay: And my eyelids are fusing shut! 2/10
All Together: 1/10

Perks
*I had fun at first

Downers
*Bad on the eyes/brain
*Terrible graphics
*Sound issues
*Lacking gameplay
*Lacking replay

Recommendations
For the benefit of health, I would not recommend this game. Bad for your eyes, mainly. All in all, I wouldn't recommend most VB games actually. However, if you're a hardcore action/flight/shooter type of person who feels they can overcome the raw insanity that is VirtualBoy, then give it a shot.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/01, Updated 09/12/01