Starglider

Title		Starglider
Game Type	3D Action
Company		Rainbird
Players		1
Compatibility	All
Submission	angus@angusm.demon.co.uk

Review
Starglider is one of the first games I remember being released after I
bought my A500. Expectations were high, because Jez San, who I believe was
involved with the C64 version of Elite, was an Amiga advocate, and had
coded Starglider with his Argonaut team, receiving some fairly high
profile magazine coverage. On to the game.

Right, you`re in the middle of a futuristic war, where you pilot a fighter
over the surface of a planet. It is always night, ie the sky is black, and
the ground is portrayed, quite convincingly by a series of dots which
though simple, give quite a nice perspective effect. All the structures
and vehicles in the game are represented by non-filled vector graphics,
which was a bit of a disappointment, as many of us felt our new A500
machines were capable of far more than this. Having said that the, the
impression of flight and the relatively high framerate made up for this
shortcoming.

The landscape is full of all manner of vehicles, all seemingly hellbent on
giving you a hard time. There`s a variety of flying craft, some of which
are very reminiscent of Elite, as well as their groundbased counterparts,
including tanks, missile launchers and those chicken walker things that
appeared in the film, �"The Return of the Jedi".

There were usually two or three bases where you could replenish your
supply of missiles etc. For actually refueling though, I believe you had
to use one of the game`s more novel features. If you imagine two towers
stuck close together like goalposts, with a further tower out on it`s own,
in the position a footballer would take a penalty shot from, then you`ve
basically got the layout of the refuelling structure. What you had to do
was fly through the �goal� towards the lone tower, keeping it directly in
your path. If you did this correctly, the sky would turn orange and your
fuel cells would begin recharging. It was fairly easy to do, but was
complicated by the fact that the opposition would usually site some fairly
heavy assets in the area, to make sure life didn`t become too dull for
you. Another feature in the game that I don`t remember seeing before was
the missile firing sequence, where you effectively piloted your missile to
it`s target, using a missile based camera. You could also interrogate the
computer when you were docked for information on the vehicles you encounter.
The music is a thumpy little number which is quite amusing, for a while.
The sound effects are okay, although one in particular, a very bassy
percussion sound is great and reminded me of the opening sequence of�"Blade
Runner".

As for your objective in the game, well, you had to shoot things. Your
priority was to find Starglider one, a golden, bird-like craft with
animated wings, then destroy it. This would take you to the next level,
where basically you did the same again against greater opposition.

Okay, it`s not a bad game. Not bad at all, but it doesn`t offer very much
in terms of variety or depth. Mind you, that`s not what everyone wants. If
you fancy blasting your way through the levels, Starglider has a
compulsive quality that could keep you at it till the early hours of the
morning.

Alphabetical list.