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June 1995


SNES
Air Cavalry
Cybersoft   Synergistic
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Flight Simulation   Release: June 1995
Age Rating: All     Challenge: Hard

As seasoned SNES players know, there is no shortage of military shooters or helicopter simulators on the market nowadays. Air Cavalry, well, joins the cavalry while doing little to separate itself from the pack. You control a chopper in a rather pixelated Mode-7 environment and are tasked with shooting down vessels and rescuing folks. Synergistic Software programmed a healthy dose of missions to complete in this cart, as well as a good variety of weapons. Grounded foes like anti-air vehicles have uncanny accuracy. It is just far too easy to get shot down. The developers emphasize realism with Air Cavalry, meaning the action is slow-paced and the color scheme is dull as dirt. Shooter fanatics best avoid.

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SNES
Phantom 2040
Viacom New Media
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Action-Platformer   Release: June 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

The year is 2040. Metropia is under siege. With crime rising to new heights, it's your job as the mysterious Phantom to prepare for action and restore justice. Based on an animated series, Phantom 2040 is a sparkling action-platformer from Viacom. Considering the sea of games cluttering this genre, some great and others agonizing, this title is quite good. Jump, shoot, dash, and duck for cover as you explore warehouses filled with robots, wall climbing gizmos, and other tricky electronics. This cart plays very well. It exhibits excellent control, as well as a sleek graphical style - albeit with rather stiff-looking animations. The never-ending flood of baddies can get old fast, but fans of adventure games will enjoy this.

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SNES
Time Cop
JVC   Cryo Interactive
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Action-Platformer   Release: April 1995
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

A young officer named Max Walker has been chosen to police dangerous sci-fi tech capable of allowing folks to travel through time. Max, now a part of the Time Enforcement Agency, or TEC, must move through various time periods to stop dastardly criminals from plundering past treasures. The gameplay in this cart is so-so. Passable but without much flare. What shines here are the lovely, digitized graphics. In addition to your own character, enemy scientists, robotic entities, and punk rockers all are cascaded in a pretty sweet digital look. Movements are smooth as well, and it is clear the programming team paid attention to the finer detail. This one is a sure-fire rental that will delight movie-goers, but may be more of the same elsewise.

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GENESIS
The Ooze
Sega   Sega TI
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Action-Strategy   Release: May 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

It's The Ooze! Straight from Sega of America comes an all-new curiosity developed exclusively for the Genesis. Far from another run-of-the-mill title, the concept behind Ooze is an innovative one. You play as an amoeba-type mass capable of stretching its body out in multiple directions to absorb enemies. Once you do so, the ooze will grow in size. The objective is to swallow-up as many baddies as you can, pile-on the strength additives, and extend your playfield both vertically as well as horizontally. Tackling bosses will require a bit of strategy, such as the power generator in the first world, but the difficulty level is not too severe. Fun for an afternoon yet somewhat mediocre for Sega TI.

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GENESIS
Skeleton Krew
Core Design
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Action-Platformer   Release: April 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Skeleton Krew is kick ass. If you've played and relished the manic fun of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Contra, this title from Core Design is right up your alley. In the ultimate fight for survival against a city plagued by the hellish DEAD Inc. and their mutant army, it's either destroy or be destroyed. SK is an above-average, fast-paced shooter with a supremely dark aesthetic and an original pseudo-3D presentation. Ammo and bombs are unlimited, and the foes are aplenty. You can figure out the rest. Two-player simultaneous mode is a joy, reducing any shred of monotony one may experience. Our team found this a ton of fun for an afternoon (or two, or three -Jet) of playtime.

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GENESIS
Saturday Slam
Capcom
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Sports-Fighter   Release: January 1995
Age Rating: Teen     Challenge: Easy

Capcom finally decided to bring its beloved wrestling fighter to home consoles. Saturday Slam Masters is 32 Megs of brawling bliss. Competently mimicking the style and impact of the arcade version, this port should satisfy wrestling fans chomping at the bit for a console iteration. Fight it out in the ring with a slew of characters and modes to pick from. Of its mode variety is Death Match, in which wrestlers must battle in a barbed wire ring filled with throwable items like bottles, tables, and chairs. Graphic-wise, Slam Masters is as clean and colorful as ever. SF2 players will pick this up fast, no doubt due to how similar those special moves are executed. A well-done conversion, but not much new elsewise.

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SEGA CD
Dungeon Explorer
Sega  Hudson Soft  Westone
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Action-RPG   Release: April 1995
Age Rating: All     Challenge: Easy

Dungeon Explorer is an action game with a drop of fantasy splashed in. Despite its unassuming and non-descript title, DE is an overhead-view action-RPG with hack-and-slash elements. For veterans of the gaming scene, this will remind you of the arcade classic Gauntlet. Choose a character class among elves, beasts and monks, and traverse Darkling Tower on the hunt for treasure, spells, and other items. Gaining experience is a cinch, and you can use accumulated cash to upgrade your armor and weapons. Move and shoot in eight directions, taking out all species of miscreants in your path. The graphical style is serviceable, as is the CD soundtrack. The real fun is with multi-player mode, available for two or more players.

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32X
Tempo
Sega   Red Company
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Action-Platformer   Release: May 1995
Age Rating: All     Challenge: Easy

Featuring a self-proclaimed hip hop, groovin' grasshopper, Tempo is a spectacular, upbeat action-adventure game exclusive to the 32X. Your mission as this groovy bug dude is to save the land of Rythmia from nefarious space octopus and his insect army! Brave a collection of vast side-scrolling stages, all showcasing rich, discotheque backgrounds, unique-looking villains, and hyperactive color galore. Tempo himself is animated beautifully with silky smooth rotation and an array of expressions. We've never seen sprite artwork like this! Polygon, who? Tempo, as the name implies, is music-themed, however the so-so music may be a weak point. Otherwise, we thoroughly enjoyed this cart and encourage 32X owners to try it out.

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32X
Zaxxon Motherbase
Sega   CRI
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Space Shooter   Release: June 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 has emerged on the Sega 32X with a (doomed) hope to renew interest in the long-forgotten arcade classic. Fly your ship through a series of isometric areas rife with obstacles and enemy ships. CRI and Sega opted against including the altitude-shifting ability of the original, instead granting players the ability to jump and dodge over incoming shots. Its best feature, by far, is the "hacking" technique that allows temporary Kirby-esque control over an enemy's power. Still, Zaxxon 2000 is, in essence, a sequel inspired fairly blatantly on SNK's Viewpoint. The flat shaded polygons and odd-shaped ships make the comparison inevitable. Controls are somewhat sluggish too. Good effort, though.

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3DO
Starblade
Panasonic   Namco
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3-D Shooter   Release: January 1995
Age Rating: All   Challenge: Intermediate

Back in October, PPM reviewed the Sega-CD version of Starblade from Namco. We concluded that, although a well-done port of the titular arcade game, there was ultimately little meriting a full-on purchase as opposed to a rental. Likewise, this iteration on 3DO is perhaps the greatest home version imaginable. Included is keen texture mapping, superb graphics, and impressive sounds that all easily surpass the powers of the Sega-CD. And yet, the replayability factor is non-existent and the cursor-driven gameplay grows tiring rather fast. These FMV shooters are simply less thrilling after catching a glimpse of the incoming 3-D adventures on Saturn and PlayStation. For what it sets out to do, it succeeds. Try renting first.

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JAGUAR
Cannon Fodder
Vigin IE   Sensible Soft
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Action-Strategy   Release: January 1995
Age Rating: Teen   Challenge: Intermediate

It's go time! Cannon Fodder is an addicting, action-strategy title filled with tons of explosions, destruction, and silliness. Originally developed as software for the Amiga, the programmers over at Sensible sought to make a military-themed shooter with loads of humorous elements, invariably with anti-war undertones. Cannon Fodder's graphical presentation is charming, the music is entertaining, and the gameplay is utterly top-notch. Guide your squad of teeny soldiers through countless micro-wars, using everything at your disposal from weaponry to scenery to gain the upper hand. Nice and simple, right? An odd one, to be sure, but we found an impossible-to-explain joyfulness and obsession in the vein of Lemmings.

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JAGUAR
Hover Strike
Atari
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3-D Shooter   Release: April 1995
Age Rating: All     Challenge: Hard

Originally announced and showcased to the public as BattleZone 2000, Hover Strike is an Atari-developed action game only available on Jaguar. Pilot a hovercraft through various zones in search of power-ups and no-good pirates to eliminate. Your vehicle is armed with missiles and mortars, though you may find maneuverability a serious issue. You must use a combination of keys to launch a simple attack, which, when added to poor steering controls and molasses-like slowness, can result in a frustrating time. Hover Strike excels on the graphical front with well-done scaling and rotation effects, but between lackluster gameplay and inescapable slow speeds, Jag owners should steer clear. Shock Wave did it far better.

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