Arrow Flash for Genesis

Image: MobyGames

Arrow Flash

Shoot three enemies. Wait a second. Repeat

Genre: shooter - horizontal

Publisher: Renovation Products

Year: 1991

System: Genesis

Gameplay Score: 3

Gameplay Notes:

You can switch between two different forms, a mech and airplane. The only difference is the mech has a larger hitbox and any options that you've gained are fixed in position above and below you. As an airplane, the options follow you Gradius style. Power ups upgrade but don't allow you to select different weapons. You have a screen clearing weapon called an arrow flash that can be either a limited stock or a chargeable use. But there's no good opportunity to charge it up so it's kind of pointless in that regard. The controls are responsive and speed is good so I enjoyed playing it.

Level Design Score: 1

Level Design Notes:

Level design is horrible. Enemies appear on screen in groups of three. Then you wait a second and another group of three appears. This pattern continues for the duration of every single level. Once you've got your weapons powered up and screen filling, you pretty much just hold down the button and wait until you get to the boss. This is one of if not the easiest shooters on the Genesis or in the 16-bit era for that matter.

Theme Score: 3

Theme Notes:

This is the standard one fighter left trope, but in this case you're the pink Power Ranger instead of a burly guy. The graphics play into this a little bit. The sprites are more cutesy when compared to something like Axelay.

Art Style Score: 4

Art Style Notes:

The sprite work is very attractive. Performance is good as well. No slowdown to speak of. The backgrounds are quite impressive. They have a lot of parallax scrolling and other effects like distortions on level 3 to make each of the levels look distinct.

Audio Score: 3

Audio Notes:

Yet another game where the music is well composed but only uses the same horn blaring sound which gets old really fast. The music could have been much better had they use some other sounds in it. The sound effects are satisfying and the shot isn't an overwhelming chincy sound that you hear in other games.

Overall Score: 52

Review ID: 751