REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

Star Pilot
by Jeffery Bond
Firebird Software Ltd
1987
Crash Issue 48, Jan 1988   page(s) 171

Producer: Firebird Silver
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: J Bond (sic)

After a tricky interview down at the careers office, you are finally accepted as a star pilot, with excellent prospects of becoming a legend of the space waves. And now it's the first big assignment - everyone turns to you when a few dozen alien spacecraft have to be destroyed, pronto.

Your craft can nip left and right, accelerate and decelerate, manoeuvring to escape the attention of the bomb-laying space vehicles that flit over the surface of the alien space base ahead of you. Bomb launchers on the surface are lining you up in their sights, too...

Your skills are tested as you thread the craft around a series of deadly barriers and projections.

For protection, your ship is equipped with a forward-firing cannon and a limitless supply of ammunition, which can take out all opposition craft.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Kempston
Graphics: mediocre
Sound: good tune
Options: definable keys; two can play at once


Despite a tiny play area, confusing graphics, and slow play, I love it! The graphics are well-designed, and the vertical scrolling is near perfection. The two-player, split-screen game style isn't original but works exceptionally well in Star Pilot. And don't think for one second that just because it's slow gonna be easy. Star Pilot is full of nasties, minds set on your blood, and it's an action-packed mission.
BYM [93%]


This is too much a copy of Mirrorsoft's Moonstrike (77% Overall in Issue 45), and a flawed one at that: the play area is ridiculously small, and in two-player mode the whole game slows down to a snail's pace. Those faults apart, though, Star Pilot is pretty good. The alien graphics are quite effective, and there are some fantastic tunes and sound FX.
NICK [50%]


The graphics are dull and boring; the concept is simple and outdated; the two-player mode is very slow. Still, Star Pilot is reasonable as one-player shoot-'em-ups go, and worth a look if you're really desperate for a blast.
MIKE [52%]

REVIEW BY: Bym Welthy, Mike Dunn, Nick Roberts

Presentation62%
Graphics66%
Playability64%
Addictive Qualities64%
Overall65%
Summary: General Rating: The sluggish two-player mode apart, Star Pilot is a decent, unremarkable shoot-'em-up. Bym's Smash rating dragged it up from the 50s.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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