Vapor Trail for Genesis

Review #4646

Vapor Trail

Trailing off...

Genesis 1991 Renovation Shooter Shooter › Horizontal
Vapor Trail screenshot for Genesis
Screenshot used for review/reference purposes.
3 / 5

Gameplay

Enemies take several hits...too many.
Also the screen scrolls quickly so avoiding enemies is often a higher priority that killing them.
Large HUD makes the screen narrow.
Pick one of three ships - fast, med, slow. They're otherwise identical
Hard to tell what you're hitting and if it's taking damage.
Only a couple of powerups with your best gun being a simple spread wavebeam or a forward laser. Not much to customize your buildout.

2 / 5

Level Design

Has stretches with nothing or little to do.
Gimmick is the multiple levels with stuff on the ground, stuff seemingly at your level, and other stuff uncomfortably high. The third level seems bizarre each time I see it with tanks twice the size of your plane.
Generally unimpressive

2 / 5

Theme

A near future, earth-based shooter that reminds me of U.N. Squadron.

2 / 5

Art Style

Feels like a small step above D-Force. The sprites are well drawn but there are so many little details that are missing. For example, enemies don't show when they are taking damage. They explode very briefly and don't leave a crater. It just doesn't look interesting.
The pseudo-3D effect is highly unconvincing without the use of any parallax scrolling.

2 / 5

Audio

The music is ok but doesn't match the theme. It's high pitched and cheerful. Sounds are largely absent. Enemies explode with a tiny little "poof" sound.
Unintelligible voice samples play often.

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