Battle Squadron for Genesis
Review #4053
Battle Squadron
Obscure and obscured
Gameplay
Below average Raiden clone.
Pretty typical mechanics like a tiny bit of horizontal scrolling since the game field is about 1.5 times the size of the screen.
Interesting difficulty settings. You choose credits and lives but also max enemy bullets and enemy bullet speed.
High difficulty because your ship is enormous and enemies take many hits. Their bullets linger on screen for a LONG time, are hard to distinguish from everything else on screen, and move faster than you.
Barely any power ups make for some tiresome gameplay.
I was going to give it a 2 but then I remembered that the auto-fire is far too slow so you have to button mash the entire time. Uggh.
Level Design
Pretty standard stuff except for one thing - tons of foreground elements obscure the game field! Avoiding enemies and bullets is hard enough without this built-in handicap.
Enemies are also recycled over and over again. In the first two levels I only count maybe three enemy types.
Theme
There's a story anyway. In fact, it reminds me of Wing Commander. Mankind is embroiled in long-time war against another spacefaring civilization and you've been sent to rescue a couple of commandos who discovered a new technology developed by the enemy.
Art Style
The sprites look almost cutesy when compared to something like Raiden, Thunder Force, or Axelay. Most levels have a flat black background or something else bland and uninteresting to look at. And those dang foreground layers are so obnoxious.
Audio
The music track (I think there was only one) wasn't too bad. It was mono and just a chirpy tune with a decent beat. Sound effects are limited, quiet, and repetitive.
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