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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 (--<]

Alive 7