While fun to fly solo, the multiplay is where this game shines. Dust off that Lynx and get that backstabber ready.
This vertical shooter has you piloting your ship through six levels destroying enemy ships and structures in order to earn money which you can spend at a space port at the end of each level on ship upgrades. These upgrades are the typical faire, stronger shots, shields, bombs, speed, wing cannons, side shots, rear shots, auto fire, and a laser. In a multiplayer game, which can have up to four players, there are two additional upgrades. Invisibility which can be useful hiding you from your friends and a back stabber which will attack only your friends. The multiplayer mode is quite a bit of fun with these two upgrades.
At the start of the game, you've got seven pilots to choose from. Each have their own special ship upgrade. This coupled with the space port upgrades gives you some variety to play. You can always try using different pilots and different upgrades to keep things fresh and interesting.
The levels are just the right size and you've got a nice amount of room to maneuver in. You begin in the desert looking for a super mission, then head to a swamp where where you'll deal with swamp monsters. You'll also fight over secret factories in the sea, bases on a small moon, weapons factories in radioactive ice caps, and tons of civies in their home city. The only thing you need to do is survive and destroy everything. You get quite the array of Mendicants to deal with, all of them with attacks that follow some sort of pattern. As an example, one of the baddies fires two shots that travel at a 45 degree angle, so if you stay dead ahead of him, he won't hit you. Others ships will fire side shots, and so on. The sheer amount of destruction in this game is very satisfying. When ships do come to engage you, they are most often in droves, so you do get that nice feeling of franticism as you do your best to weave and fire.
The graphics are pleasant enough and the sound effects and music very reminiscent of the time. You do have the option to turn off the music during play if it gets too annoying.
The game also contains an easter egg in the form of Conway's Game of Life. Overall, this shooter is quite fun to play with a fair amount of replay value in the form of the different pilots and upgrades. The multplay is what makes this one a winner. There's nothing like blasting aliens with your friends, especially when you can take your allies out instead. Lynx fans should definitely give this one a go. It's one to have in the collection, even though it's not the greatest game ever. It'll keep you occupied for awhile, especially if you have friends you can play with.