Reviews

A very ambitious coin-op conversion from the twilight years of the spectrum, and it would be fair to say that they 'pulled it off' (fnar?).
The graphics and game engine really appear to be pushing the limits of the speccy. Overall the game is presented beautifully, and is worth checking out for the presentation alone. Also, aiming and shooting at the aliens, blasting heads and limbs off is very entertaining for a while.
Not worthy of a 5, it is all a bit repetitive as games go, but that is purely down to the design of the arcade original.

This was ambitious and as it turns out maybe it was too ambitious. The graphics are impressive and the overall presentation of the game, down to the alien at the beginning and even the Taito logo is a sight to behold, really impressive. But as with any game the gameplay is the main component and with all the colourful detail comes a sacrifice, and yes that sacrifice is indeed the gameplay. This is because the gameplay, as a direct result of the chunky, colourful, highly detailed graphics, is a clunky, spluttering mess of a game with a horrid frame rate and confusing style. Too much happens on the screen at once and before you know it your health bar is sapped and you are done. The flaws are not for the lack of effort but largely down to the ambition of such a conversion, because it doesn't quite work. Some conversions really ought to have been left to the 16-bit computers and I feel Space Gun belongs in that theory.