Neoclyps

The Good
Aliens from a nearby planet close to Neoclyps have installed radar towers on the planet’s surface to spy on its neighbor. In case anyone decides to take pot shots at these towers, the alien race has also sent their best ships to guard all of them. In this horizontally-scrolling shooter from P.S.S., you have been tasked to fly through a series of sectors (landscapes) and destroy these towers, as well as any enemy ships. These ships put up a good fight, even flying close to the surface if they need to.

At first glance, the gameplay is reminiscent to Scramble. However, unlike Konami’s early Eighties arcade game, you have the ability to backtrack through each sector in case you miss any towers, and you also can’t launch any bombs at them. This brings a challenging element to it, to swoop down to the surface and get close to the towers without crashing. Since you have plenty of lives handy, you can practice doing this until you can crash no more. Finally, a change of the border color indicates that you are entering a different landscape.

The developers at Cymbol had put a lot of thought into the architecture. They remind me of scaffolding and construction sites, not just buildings of different shapes and sizes. I love looking at the outdoor shuttle bays. The appearance of each radar dish is different, and fire jutting out of them when they are destroyed is impressive. The explosion of your own ship looks pretty good as well.

I also like the status updates that appear after you lose a life and when the game is over, telling you how many lives you have, what sector you are flying through, the current score/high score, and so on. I guess Cymbol didn’t want to overload us with information while we are flying through the sectors. According to the title/options screen, there are over thirteen levels in the game. A level is completed when all the alien ships and towers are destroyed, and that takes a long time, judging from my own experience. Later levels introduce more aggressive ships that hunt in packs and the addition of surface-to-air missiles.

The Bad
Loading from the cassette takes about ten minutes. There is not much in entertainment; all you can do is have a cup of tea and something to eat and hope that it is done.

When viewing the status updates, there is no way I could get back into the game or start a new one unless I swap joystick ports and press Fire. I could not find any instructions on the back cover and find out for myself how to get back into the game.

The Bottom Line
This is an addictive game where the object is to fly through landscapes and destroy any radar towers you come across, and possibly kill the one alien ship that guards it. The game is similar to Scramble, except you can't launch any bombs. The graphics and animation are fantastic. There are over thirteen levels, and it takes a long time to get through them. Early levels may be easier, but the game gets more challenging the further you progress.