What do you get if you cross Afterburner with Thunderblade? Look no further, because it's all here. Thunder Burner takes the forward-
Such harsh words are reserved only for the very worst games - so what does Thunder Burner do that makes it so bad? Well, for starters, the unappealing graphics are blocky, poorly animated and thoroughly second-rate. Then there's the action - 12 levels of continuous, utterly predictable, forward-
Probably the most dreadful shoot-em-up ever.
Der Held der Veranstaltung ist ein Roboter, der laufen und kurzfristig auch fliegen kann; der arme Kerl muß sich durch zwölf unglaublich häßlich gezeichnete 3D-Landschaften kämpfen, um am Ende das feindliche Haupt
Unser blecherner Freund latscht also "in den Screen hinein"; zieht man den Joystick nach hinten, wachsen ihm Flügel, er hebt ab und fliegt weiter - bis ihm nach wenigen Sekunden die Energie ausgeht, dann verwandelt er sich wieder zurück in die bodenständige Ausführung.
Ab und an begegnet er schwebenden Kugeln, die seine Energie auffrischen, wenn er unter ihnen durchläuft, und gelegentlich (sehr gelegentlich!) trifft er auf häßliche graue oder grüne Kästen, die ihn beschießen.
Theoretisch könnte er diese Kästchen zwar abballern, aber das lohnt kaum: das Zielen funktioniert mehr schlecht als recht, außerdem ist die Kollisionsabfrage nichts Berühmtes, und vor allem kann man den Schüssen ohnehin relativ locker ausweichen. Am Levelende gibt es dann ein besonders häßliches Schlußmonster, das sich meist problemlos umpusten läßt.
Tja, und genau das passiert nun sämtliche zwölf Level lang, die Abschnitte sehen teilweise sogar nahezu identisch aus. Die langsame Ruckelgrafik taugt nur wenig, der Sound (Pieps! Knrrrk!) noch weniger, das Gameplay nicht viel - jetzt ratet mal, wieviel das ganze Spiel wohl taugt. Na? (od)
From the inaugural moment I sceptically plucked the perplexingly orange disk from the arbitrary polystyrene packaging to be found strategically shoved within this inexplicably shiny and suggestively foreign double-
Game play 'befalls thus'. You primarily take control of a robot, hurtling constantly into the screen, which can be transformed Transformer-
So what we have here is a sort of Space Harrier clone if you'd allow Mr Imagination a seat for a while, although one difference is that your sprite remains central whilst everything else changes position accordingly - there's a special word for this, but I can't remember it, and it isn't in my new Thesaurus either. Tacky thing.
Anyway, here's where the relays come in; small spheres carefully dotted throughout the play area depicting the required route, necessitating collection. Miss two or three in plane or robot mode respectively, and you will automatically turn into the robot and slow to half your original speed.
Not too weird so far, eh? There is, however, a big however. At any time F10 calls up VCR mode - a neat little twist which allows the game to be 'rewound' to a chosen point and restarted. So every time you crash into a pillar, are shot down by a baddy, or lose speed in the plane and crash to the ground you can rewind a bit then simply avoid the same mistake.
And here comes that however. However. Nope, not big enough. HOWEVER (That's more like it), provided you don't take too long about it, you can rewind before the life counter has decreased - hence effectively playing with infinite lives. A bug or a carefully thought-out French revelation? Well, who cares as it completely ruins the game - which was totally boring, crap-
I'm afraid no amount of money, sex, drugs or purple Quality Street can persuade me to recommend a game where the only challenge is whether you can beat the end of level baddy or not (as you can't rewind on this bit). Oh no.