This not particularly usual game, as old now as I was when I first played it,
puts you in control of a super-high-tech motor racing boat. This vessle comes in
a standard appearance with a trusty cannon and a good engine, and can later be
upgraded.
You chase down the enemy boats at blistering speeds, and try to shoot
them in the passing, at the same time as you must grab bonus pick-ups in order to
keep yourself ahead of the competition.
Each pickup moves the selection of bonus one step to the right, as in gradius,
and a press of SELECT lets you: Make a quick turbo-boost; Upgrade your cannon;
Increase your speed capability; Expand your firing to include lethal missiles;
Produce a protective forcefield, especially good against bosses.
This game bears more than a passing resemblance to RARE's all-time
classic "RC-Pro Am", released a few years earlier, but has the major difference
that it is centered around boats instead of RC-cars. The objectives differ from
stage to stage, and so does the layout of the stages. While the 1st stage is a
straight-forward race to the end, one of the later stages is a square where you
must shoot all incoming boats to keep them from taking away the people in the
pool.
Then of course, some are plain bonus-stages, without enemies, but yet with a
time-limit, where the objective is to grab as many powerups as possible in order
to further your chances of winning.
| RATINGS |
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| Graphics | 90% |
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| Sound | 82% |
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| Playability | 93% |
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| Challenge | 95% |
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| Replayability | 75% |
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| Overall | 85% |
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| OTHER |
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| NES Emulators |
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This game, while being relatively odd and very entertaining, is hard as
rocks! When I sat down with it now, ten years later, it took me three game-overs
to finish the first boss! But this still is an excellent game, and one of the
more memorable from the now sadly passed NES-era.
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