It is said that the most common human dream has always been about flying in the
air like a bird. As a "wish granting"-media, many videogames have been released
offering this unique experience straight out of the box, with more or less
complex controls.
But what if you only got one finger left after a bad ice skating accident or if
the directionnal stick of your ST controller doesn't work anymore??? Don't
worry! For all those horrorful situations and also for people who just want to
experience another form of gameplay, here is the new production out of the
Reservoir Gods labs... One mission, one button : SuperFly (pronounce SupaFly :)!
[Basic concept...]
But what is that "one button" concept all about? You may ask... Well, that's the
point which makes this game unique.
Basicaly, it's a survival game. You're speeding in a non regular tunnel, with
obstacles through the way. It sounds like all those vertical scrolling car games
(you can find one on almost every system in the universe, most of the time in
ascii mode ;)... But here the car is replaced by a AIFO (almost identified
flying object, who said easy? ;), the scrolling is horizontal and the control is
way more challenging.
So you got a ship moving up and down. Press the assigned button and the engine
will propel it up, release it and the gravity will lay it down, damn simple uh?
(it could even be playable on a CDi remote... ;) Then you got to estimate the
trajectory curves and try to avoid the obstacles as well as the sides of the
randomly generated tunnel.
Some may think it's too simple to be entertaining... But once the ship is
flying, you can't move your eyes away from the screen, believe me! You'll keep
your finger over the button and will stay concentrated until you crash, then
ready for another run.
If you think it's too dumb to be worth playing... I could recommend you to check
those heavy flying simulator shits and see if it's fun, but it wouldn't be
correct... Also perhaps the additional challenges will keep you interested. ;)
[...along cool additions]
There are several game modes, from the simple "go as far as you can" to a
complex story mode. Each of these is a mixing of stages division, objects to
grab and scores to reach.
You also got various ships to play with, each having its own weight and that
makes another parameter in the trajectory estimation. The scenery also changes,
according the ship you selected, as well as the obstacles shapes and the in-game
music.
Like in every RG game, there are many parts to unlock such as the different
game modes and the possiblity to play with all ships in each game mode, along
mind-candies like pictures galleries and the soundtrack jukebox.
[The RG seal of quality]
The realisation of this production reach the same quality level than others RG
ST releases.
The horizontal scrolling shows nearly no slowdown (i only tested the game on
STe) running certainly at 50fps and the ship flows smoothly, leaving nice trails
behind. The tunnel borders and the obstacles use only one single color and are
composed of rectangular blocks. While it's not very beautiful, it makes these
easier to follow.
The graphics are reduced to the max during the game and on the menu, some nice
pictures being present in the story mode and in the galleries. Once again i
wouldn't have been against some more complex graphics but it does the job nicely
and the design is fine.
The (SID Sound Designer) music style is quite similar to the previous RG ST
games (with typical MSG solos :) but with more variations. You can even hear
arpeggios in the copter level, my favorite tune in the game so far (even if the
beginning of the solo is weird ;).
[Hits-makers]
So once again RG brought a damn entertaining production to the scene, taking
lots of hours from the active sceners schedules and giving ST gamers another
reason to keep their machine.
As a xmas present, RG even released an enhanced version of the game last winter
featuring fat santa on his sledge and labeled SantaFly (pronounce CenterFly ;).
What more could you be waiting for? The next RG hit maybe? ;)
[>-------------------------------------------------------) 30/06/03 Dma-Sc (--<]
|
