Exolon? R-Type? Zynaps? Nah, it's not any of them!

Producer: Gremlin Graphics
Plasma Power: £7.99 cass, £12.99 disk
Author: Jobbee, Berni and Benn

If you think GCSEs are a pain, spare a thought for the poor soldiers who have to pass the stringent three-phase test of the Corps of Guardian Readers... er, I mean Warriors. This test is one of the hardest in the known universe, and Gremlin want you to pay for privilege of suffering it.

To start with, you bravely venture on foot into the horizontally-scrolling Combat Zone. As in R-Type your gun has a power meter - hold fire down to produce a giant plasma bolt. When aliens are destroyed they drop globes which can be collected for a points, add-on weapons or extra jump power.

Situated in the Combat Zone are three flashing Fusion Pods. Enter one of the first two and the player is changed into a spaceship, transferred to the single-screen Alien Zone. Here, a huge alien (different for each level) attacks you and must be destroyed to return to the Combat Zone.

When both large aliens have been eliminated (the easy bit!), you may enter the third pod and the Flight Zone. This is a horizontally-scrolling landscape, infested with small aliens. The fusion pod at the zone's end takes you to the Combat Zone of the next ten levels.

Despite similarities to the brilliant R-Type, Dark Fusion incorporates a more varied mixture of game styles. All the levels are quite colourful and without much clash. The aliens are well drawn and animated, though not as impressive as those in R-Type. To deal with them there's a variety of powerful weapons to be collected, adding an interesting strategic element. Ingame sound effects are limited, but there's a good intro tune.

Dark Fusion is a fine shoot-'em-up, with varied gameplay to live up to its slick presentation. Its appeal is also likely to last, due to just the right level of difficulty - challenging, but not (quite) impossible.

PHIL [83%]

THE ESSENTIALS
Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: generally colourful and all well-drawn
Sound: a decent 128K title tune, but only simple ingame blasting effects
Options: definable keys

This is a very playable shoot-'em-up which takes elements from several sources to produce an interesting, well-presented game. Unfortunately, the variety of all the different levels is occasionally appreciated due to the ease with which games are cut too short (ie, you die very quickly! - Ed). I disagree with Phil on this game, the gameplay is frustratingly hard and practice doesn't help that much. For well 'ard gamesplayers only.
MARK [77%]

Presentation is slick, the graphics and animation are good, while sound is just adequate. Some of the sprites in the combat zones are really impressive, but require a lot of bashing - and that's the main problem, gameplay is just too difficult. As in R-Type knowing the attack waves of the aliens is vital, but here you have to know them to such precision the fun goes out of the game. Nevertheless, it's better than Techno Cop.
NICK [80%]

Gremlin Graphics
£7.99 cass/£12.99 disk
Reviewer: Phil South

I didn't think there were many variations left in the old 'little man walking along on planet surface in a space suit' games. But after Dan Dare, Freddy Hardest, Exolon and now Dark Fusion, it's certain that this type of game is here to stay.

Although the actual idea behind Dark Fusion isn't that original, the presentation of the thing is brilliant. It has the most effective soundtrack I've ever heard on a Spectrum, which fairly slaps into your ears, ending with synthesised notes and beating drums. Fab! if it was down to the musical score it would have rated as a megagame, but unfortunately the rest of the game isn't quite up to scratch.

'Cos the thing about Dark Fusion is that each level is a pastiche of another game.

The first level looks like Exolon with a little man running along in a spacesuit with a gun and a jet pack, the second level looks like Scramble or R- Type as you fly down through a cave infested by gribbly monsters, and finally there's the monster at the end of the level with his blinking orifices and squirming caterpillars. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing at all wrong with the execution of this program, as it's packaging and presentation are first class, the sound perfect, and the graphics great. But what happened to the fund of new ideas in software design?

In Dark Fusion you begin by running, as I said, along an alien landscape in a spacesuit. Aliens circle and drop over your head and you have to shoot them, for which you get points and new weapons. Then you take off in a small ship, this time shooting little spaceships which bear a striking resemblance to the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars, and pick up points and new weapons. Then you're up against the big monster who you must destroy - pretty tricky actually.

Having said Dark Fusion is unoriginal, it would be unfair not to say that it actually plays very well, and in the hardness stakes is quite hard indeed (Fnar!). But somehow I found it curiously unsatisfying.

In a flagrant attempt to provoke me into the uncontrollable use of the word 'unoriginal', Gremlin appears to have unleashed yet another Nemesis/Exolon derivative. But it takes more than that to make me snap. Besides, Dark Fusion is actually pretty good.

You're in the usual predicament. Hordes of mutant aliens pour forth, and will have to be eliminated if you're to make it through the various levels. You start on foot, with the traditional left, right and jump movements available. Fusion pods are what you're after, and you'll find three scattered around each level. The first two open up to reveal mega-aliens, the sort of thing you normally see knocking around at the end of each level of scrolling shooters. Once these have been atomised, the final pod gives access to the Flight Zone, a bog-standard scrolling shooter, where things really hot up. There are four levels like this, all very different so variety isn't a problem.

Extra spice is added by the presence of icons. These occasionally appear, and can be picked up to give you extra fire-power, energy, you know the sort of thing. You can only carry one at a time, but you can save it until it's needed.

There's also a gimmick. Yes indeed, something new! The longer you hold down the fire button, the meatier your shot will be when you release it. This means that you can either opt for rapid, puny bullets to dispatch smaller obstructions, or massive dollops which come in very handy against larger adversaries.

That's about it for novel ideas though, so it's all down to programming. Luckily there's no problem here. Although the graphics look even more familiar than the plot, they're colourful and move smoothly, and the horizontal scrolling is particularly slick. The collision detection is the only thing I could really question. Obstacles seem to be surrounded by some kind of invisible but lethal aura, so give them a wide berth.

One point worthy of note is the multi-channel tune at the beginning, complete with extensive percussion effects. There's also a nice, but utterly pointless bit of animation on the title screen with loads of little balls spinning around in formation. Well I liked it anyway.

As you may have gathered by now, I was impressed by this one. While it doesn't quite rank among the elite of Speccy shoot 'em ups, and is scandalously unoriginal (darn it, there I go), Dark Fusion is fast and playable enough to keep most undiscerning players going 'til the bitter end.

Label: Gremlin
Author: Bernie & Steve
Price: £7.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

Oh no! Not another sideways-scrolling little man in a space suit with a big gun, shooting hordes of aliens and jumping over things! Well, yes and no. Dark Fusion may be an Exolon/North Star/ Crosswize sort of a type of game, but it's remarkably well done and qualifies as one of the best games from Gremlin for some time. From the second you load up, and your ears are assailed by the guitar-howling, pitch-bending, drum-thumping 128K music by the mysterious Benn, you can tell that this is going to be something special. The game itself holds no disappointments at all; excellent graphics and animation, fetching design, challenging gameplay and plenty of attention to detail.

The game is roughly divided into two sections. the Combat Zone and the Alien Zone. In the first, your task is to collect Fusion Pods. But where to find them? Try blasting a few passing spacefighters, and the spherical pods bounce to the ground ready to be collected. Some ships also carry weapons pods, which can also be found by blasting some ground installations. Picking up a weapons pod brings up an icon below the screen, and you can save the pod up until you want to activate it by pressing the space bar. You can have up to two pods active at a time, and the appropriate icon flashes when they are about to run out of power.

The pods include a Big Jumper, which allows you to leap over tall obstacles (you'll need to use this almost immediately); a four-direction firer; a zoomy curvey upwards and downwards firer; and more on later levels. In addition, you have your standard zap-zap-zap laser, which takes three hits to destroy most targets; and an R-Type style blaster. Hold down the fire button to charge the blaster, and release when the power bar hits maximum to take out those tricky targets.

The more exotic targets include giant space-suited figures, which you may recognise from Crosswize, and grotesque hopping froglets, which chase you back to the left as you try to blow them to bits.

If you get through to the end of a level, having discovered all the fusion pods. you'll find a transporter to the next section. If you don't have all the pods, you have to make your way back until you find them all.

Scattered across the level are other transporters which will take you into the Alien Zone. Here you can take on giant mother-ships for big points, but to complicate things a big whirly space-snake (ref. R-Type again) snakes around, trying to bash you to fragments, and in my case more often than not succeeding. The huge mother ship is nicely designed, but really just sits jiggling up and down as you shoot at it, so its not that exciting.

There's not much more to say about Dark Fusion; it's a very competent shoot-em-up with all the best elements of your Exolons, R-Types and Crosswizes, and a few tricks of its own thrown in too. Give it a bash - you wont be sorry.

Trigger fingers to the test, with Gremlin.

Promising entrants to the Corps of the Guardian Warriors must first pass a test which examines the disciplines needed as an everyday Guardian Warrior - basically lots of shouting, running around and shooting.

The test itself is therefore split into three sections. The main Combat Zone involves negotiating a horizontal corridor which is infested with all manner of alien ships, robots and gun emplacements. These fire upon and generally hassle the Corps cadet, who has only a limited energy supply and a mere three lives with which to complete the test.

Extra equipment can be collected by picking up the icons released on the destruction of specific alien constructions. The cadet can thus increase his manoeuvrability and firepower along the way.

Within each section there lie three "Fusion Pods", giving access to further sub-sections. Two Alien Zones must be entered and the alien creatures within destroyed. Only then can the Combat Zone be completed and the Flight Zone entered for the trip through to the next level.

The difficult and lacklustre gameplay tends to wear thin after only a few goes, and this potentially interesting shoot-em-up (shades of Northstar, Exolon and even R-Type) is relegated to the no-man's land of mediocre games. Technically sound on all versions, but missing the vital spark to separate it from the "also-playeds".

Reviewer: Steve Jarratt

RELEASE BOX
Atari ST, £19.99dk, Imminent
Amiga, £19.99dk, Imminent
Spec, 128 £7.99cs. £12.99dk, Out Now
Amstrad, £9.99cs. £14.99dk, Out Now
C64/128, £9.99cs, £14.99dk, Imminent

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 100/100
1 hour: 95/100
1 day: 75/100
1 week: 20/100
1 month: 0/100
1 year: 0/100

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £7.99, Diskette: £12.99

OUR TYPE OF COMPETENT SPACE BLASTING

Gremlin's Spectrum shoot-'em-up has an immediate sense of familiarity - Exolon and the more recent R-Type come to mind. But similarity needn't necessarily breed contempt, it's gameplay that counts, and the way that programmers have recently played chess with the limited pieces you have a on a shoot-'em-up board can almost be as interesting as the games themselves.

The Corps of Guardian Warriors are forced to undergo a stringent three-phase test, hoofing it in armour-plated suits - or flying their ships - through the combat zone. Similarly to R-Type,, your gun has a power meter and holding down fire produces a giant plasma bolt. Destroyed aliens drop spheres which provide points, add-on weapons or give extra jump power when collected.

Once inside the combat zone you see three flashing fusion pods, and if you go into either of the first two you're dumped into a spaceship and transferred to the single-screen alien zone. Here, a huge alien (different for each level) attacks you and must be destroyed to return to the combat zone. When both large aliens have been eliminated, you may enter the third pod and the flight zone, a horizontally-scrolling landscape, inhabited by small aliens. The fusion pod at the zones end takes you to the combat zone of the next ten levels. The elements of the game are well put together, but the difficulty level may have been pitched just too high for many players, with only the most hardened arcadester sticking it out to discover whether lasting appeal is good or not. Are you tough enough?