Producer: Cascade Games
Retail Price: £8.95
Author: Paul Laidlaw

A white dwarf - a dying star - has been plucked from its position in space by an unknown force and propelled towards Earth on a collision course. Panic grows. This renegade star must be stopped. You are the pilot and air warrior charged with that task.

Something or someone has set up a series of eight defence grids around the white dwarf. To destroy the approaching colossus these must be stripped away.

You have a space fighter which can rotate, accelerate and decelerate, dive and climb. More importantly, it's equipped with a forward-firing double cannon.

Pure energy spheres drift in and out of the protective gridwork that surrounds the star. Cannon fire will make these spheres explode, and you can collect some energy crystals from the exploding spheres. Then you have a fresh source of energy for your shields and lasers.

You can also pass inside the grid, but it's very risky.

When all of the white dwarf's protective layers have been stripped away, the trench that leads to the centre of the star is revealed. You can now get to the core, where the final part of the mission has to be completed.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: monochromatic and unimaginative
Sound: not worth mentioning
Options: definable keys

Implosion can best be categorised as a simple shoot-'em-up. The playing area where all the animation takes place is monochromatic, which safely avoids any masking or attribute problems, and visually the game is unimpressive. Sound is lacking, too. The controls are simple to use, which makes it quite playable, especially as there are no complex instructions to absorb; unfortunately there's not much else to absorb the player in Implosion either.
ROBIN [39%]

Implosion is one of the most dull and uninteresting games I've played for ages. The graphics are monochromatic and very boring; you can weave through the grid for ever and ever but there's very little variation.
MIKE [45%]

Implosion holds nothing special. Just flying about killing the odd alien life form isn't much fun; I've had more fun playing Space Invaders than playing this. There's one neat part where you can weave in and out of the grid, but that's about it.
NICK [30%]

Cascade
£8.95
Reviewer: Tony Worrall

This game has got the kind of instructions I like - destroy everything! Short and sweet But then Implosion doesn't really need any more info than that. It's just a zapping arcade game from start to finish. Don't be taken in by the marketing bluff - "the most exciting multi-screen scrolling game ever", it says on the cover. Give me a quid for every time I've heard that! It's well produced and very good to look at, but the gameplay just isn't there chaps.

Okay, let's take a closer look. The aim is to liquidate every passing alien craft you come across. When one defence grid is cleared the next opens up, until all the grids have been polished off. Then the unlucky planet will implode, hence the name of the game.

The action takes place above and below a massive grid. Your ship is in the centre of the screen and in true Asteroids style the screen performs a smooth 360 scroll when you move about. In fact Implosion is very similar in style to US Gold's Last Mission, but it's nowhere near as involved or hectic. The aliens tend to travel in packs and sometimes creep up behind you, sapping your energy as they pass. If you like a little non-stop, mindless blasting then check it out by all means, but don't blame me if you get bored! It's a bit pricy as well. Nuff said!

Label: Cascade
Author: Paul Laidlaw
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

According to the blurb, the world that you been have uttered from is under attack, so you naturally 'fight back'. All to do is fly your ship over a series of seven grids, each harder than the previous one, shooting nasties and some funny dome-shaped things. And when you have shot the requisite amount of FDST (Funny Domed Shaped Things), you get transported to the next grid.

Occasionally, an item appears under the grid, so you must use the Dive button to go under the grid, collect the thingumibob and climb back up.

When you've destroyed all seven grids, then it's off to the city again to cause a lot more mass destruction.

Graphically, it's dull. Aurally it's dull. Even the playability isn't up to much. So I can't understand why I quite like it. Maybe because it can be fun. Approach it with the right attitude and it is FUN.

Just one more thing. It claims to be 360° scrolling. I'm sure it only scrolls in eight direction.

Cascade, £8.95cs
C64 version reviewed in Issue 3 - ACE Rating 702

Monochrome it may be, but the scrolling on this shoot-em-up's satisfyingly fast and smooth for such a tricky conversion subject. The Uridium-style flipover is gone and the sound's pretty uninspired stuff, but the gameplay's still intact making it good, simple fun.