Vortex for SNES
Review #669
Vortex
Soul-less Star Fox
Gameplay
You can morph between three different mechs - a Walker, a Jet, and a Steamroller. Methinks one of those doesn't quite fit
Movement is lumbering.
Framerate is even worse than Star Fox
Controls are simple - d-pad for movement and B and A to shoot missiles and lasers, respectively. Press Select to cycle between morphs which is annoying since the morph animation is long and going from Jet to Walker takes two morphs since Steamroller is between them.
No strafe makes free-roaming movement annoying.
Looks like Star Fox but the gameplays reminds me more of Red Alarm on the Virtual Boy.
Shooting is satisfying. For a minute. You only get 10 missiles and there are no pickups that I could find.
Level Design
The training level is ground-based and free-roaming but the first level is just an empty outer space runway that plays out on a 2D plane. It even had boundaries on the right and left so it feels like walking along an airplane runway. IN SPACE!
The objective of a level is to clear enemies before they shoot at you since their attacks are unavoidable. So you just lumber along as slow as possible and shoot enemies that come straight at you. It's incredibly boring.
The levels have no interesting set pieces or sequences like Star Fox had. This is a perfect example of Western vs Japanese design principles
Theme
The plot is that aliens has captured a McGuffin that has been broken into 5 pieces and will be doom the galaxy if the bad guys can bring it back to their home world. Pretty generic sci-fi setting, but I can dig it.
Unfortunately you're ultimately just a blocky mech without any personality.
Art Style
Hasn't aged well. The vehicle models are much more complex than Star Fox's Arwing fighter, but this comes at a cost. There's a tremendous amount of slowdown when only a couple of enemies are on screen. Ultimately I think the game was just too ambitious for the technology
Audio
I liked the music. Sound was ok as well.
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