88 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
88 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
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NY WARRIORS
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Virgin Mastertronic has come out with their first full-scale conversion of an
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arcade shoot-'em-up game for the Amiga, and they've done a superlative job.
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While you're certainly not going to find anything here you haven't run into a
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zillion times before in arcade gameplay, NY WARRIORS has some of the smoothest,
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sharpest, and prettiest graphics yet in this kind of vertically scrolling blast.
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You play from an overhead view in each level. The vertical scroll rate is not
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constant, but controlled by your character's movement. So, although things are
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fast and furious from the start, you're not forced into new screens any sooner
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than you want to be.
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There is a certain amount of moving around horizontally in some areas as well,
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since you can explore sideways down sidestreets, across parks, along either
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sides of bridges, etc. Under the right circumstances, backward movement is also
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possible, so that you're not locked out of screens you've already cleared if you
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want to flee from an area that's proving too difficult to handle.
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Game control is based entirely on the joystick, as it should be in a powerful
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shoot-'em-up romp like this. The control is smooth and precise: You can both aim
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and move in all eight cardinal directions, and can either choose continual
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pressure on the stick to keep moving in a particular direction, or can inch up
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with slight movements and position yourself behind walls, trees, benches,
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doorways, etc., in order to take cover. You are given unlimited basic
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ammunition, but any improvements in the weaponry you find have a limited number
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of rounds available, after which you default back to your startup ammo. There
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are a wide variety of weapons available, which are picked up as you move over
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them, and each has particular strengths and weaknesses, designed to be
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functional in the types of battles upcoming in the screen or two ahead.
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The premise of the game is quite simple, and reminiscent of the movie "Escape
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from New York." The World Trade Center has been taken hostage by terrorists, and
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it is your task to fight your way to it before it blows up. There are different
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kinds of end-of-level challenges to deal with at the conclusion of each
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scenario, and once you've completed a level, you're given a screen which
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describes your next mission and provides a flashing wire-frame outline map, to
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help you plan your next moves.
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The design of each screen is fabulous; for example, at the opening in Central
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Park, the trees blow in the wind quite realistically. Your opponents are
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animated in great detail, and extensive use of shading helps make the world
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you're playing in feel dimensional. Objects on the screen are tangible in terms
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of gameplay, as well: You have to go around obstacles like benches, trees,
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sandbags, lamp-posts, holes in the pavement, etc., and can't walk on water. Neon
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signs flash and sizzle; the displays above establishments in Chinatown are in
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Chinese; characters walk realistically out of darkened doorways or position
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themselves strategically on top of buildings or behind barriers you can't shoot
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through; and sound effects and music all contribute substantially to the vivid,
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gritty atmosphere of the game.
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Imagination is evident in terms of the creation of your opponents, as well.
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Ramboids, Rastas, and Killer Klowns (among others) all have different approaches
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to the task of eliminating you, and each sprite is large and colorful. The
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overall filling of the screen is balanced perfectly between sprite size and
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playfield size; the sprites are big enough to be colored and drawn with loving
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care, yet small enough to allow for a screen full of room to move, as well as
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action to beware of.
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To begin with, you choose one of four levels of difficulty. At the easiest
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difficulty level, it's possible to keep coming back to life (though not
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indefinitely), and thus pushing through the hardest areas to the end. At the
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higher difficulty levels, both survival and ammo are much more limited.
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The game comes on two copy-protected disks, which you only need to fiddle with
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when first loading. NY WARRIORS is part of Virgin Mastertronic's "1 Megabyte"
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series, which means it simply won't play in less than 1MB of RAM. The reasons
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for this are quite apparent upon booting: The music soundtrack features some
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really snazzy electric guitar work; the opening intro screens give you a quick
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tour of a beautifully detailed neighborhood; and the explosions produced by
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different kinds of gunfire have to be seen to believed. If nothing else, this
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game is worth buying simply to enjoy some of the most fantastic explosions (both
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visually and aurally) ever introduced into an arcade game; once things really
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get going, certain portions of the game look more like a 4th of July fireworks
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display than a war of all against all.
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I hope Virgin Mastertronic has other games like this in the chute. The care in
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the design of the sonics, visuals, and game control all fully revive my interest
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in this genre of gaming. It's a relief to find out that it's not arcade games
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that have gone stale, but imagination in the design of arcade games. NY WARRIORS
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really does bring home all the old excitement of the arcade.
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NY WARRIORS is published and distributed by Virgin Mastertronic.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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