Once mastered, a thoroughly enjoyable experience of exploration!
The story is simple and of little significance: you are to pilot an experimental craft of earth through various caverns and other underworld areas, seeking to destroy the leader of an alien race threatening humanity.
Gameplay: A fairly open game for its time. Upon entering each new cavern, you are bestowed numerous tasks, often involving the destruction of alien structures, rescuing human miners and collecting sub modules to assist you further on. The levels are quite unrestricted in structure, allowing some degree of choice in how you intend to tackle the tasks. Though there are only 9 levels (making for a potentially short play span), its more than made up for by the sheer difficulty. Your ship can be tricky to maneuver, some of the various enemies can wipe you out almost instantly without caution and your fuel supply vanishes rapidly. Thus you will find yourself exploring each level from top to bottom for the numerous optional pickups, in fear of what the next area holds!
Graphics: As nifty as 2D gets! Each alien enviroment looks quite spectacular with a fair amount of detail. Theres a vast array of enemies, each looking intimidating to your tiny little ship (check the first boss you come across!), and your primary fire becomes more impressive in appearance as you continue to upgrade it.
Sound: Standard shooter bleeps and blasts for the most part. Some of the soundtrack is pretty superb though, I've seen me play the game first n foremost to hear a particular catchy theme before.
Lifespan: The game does have a pretty steep learning curve, and you may frustratingly find yourself trapped no further than the 3rd level while still adjusting to the ships rather awkward handling. Once mastered though, its a thoroughly enjoyable experience of exploration while it lasts, the bosses and colorful caverns demand revisiting and a players abilities and top scores always have room for improvement!
Shouldn't cost too many a penny on Ebay.