Game Data:
- Review Date: June 1, 2021
- Release Date: March 15, 1993
- Platform: Genesis
- Publisher: Sunsoft
- Developer: Software Creations
- Genre: Linear Platformer
Anecdotes: Oh, my, it’s another Genesis platformer. I should expect excessive difficulty, bad controls, and repeating the same areas over and over. Sure enough, this game has all of those. Like the others, I didn’t see anything past stage two, but unlike the other games, the difficulty wasn’t the worst problem; here, it was the controls.
I’m looking at the release date, and I see I was very lucky to miss out on this came because I was embarrassing myself at the local roller rink with my church that night. An 8 year old girl saw me and decided that she was going to teach me how to roller skate. For that girl to take the time to teach a 15 year old boy how to skate was very, very nice. I never saw her again, nor did I keep up with skating, but my opinion of girls in general changed for the better that night. That story has nothing to do with the game, but it’s far more interesting than the game is.
Description: Jason (a person) and Sophia (a tank) are out for another adventure. Like before, Jason has to collect upgrades to advance to new areas. Said upgrades are boss drops. Unlike before, though, Sophia runs the show in the overhead sections, which would have been interesting had the controls made any sense.
Positives:
- An ability to shoot diagonally was added in, meaning Sophia can now fire in five directions instead of three.
Negatives:
- I haven’t seen a control scheme as bad as this one, and that includes the terrible options given to the player. This is so bad that I need subpoints.
- While it’s nice to be able to decide which buttons jump, shoot, and fire special weapons, it is not clear how to get out of the car. I had to look it up, and it’s down and special fire. Why? The first game used down and B to fire weapons, so why not do something similar here? Down and shoot would have worked nicely and the special button could have been changed to toggling Jason in or out of the car.
- Meanwhile, doors have a similar issue. This was changed from down in the first game to up and shoot here. Again, why?
- Also changed from the first game was Sophia. Sophia can now shoot diagonally and upward, but the shooter arm have to be manually lowered now. Sophia will stay in the upward position until players hit the button to lower it.
- Speaking of Sophia, it now takes the starring role in the overhead sections. Naturally, Sunsoft botched those controls, too. Bullets can be fired in lots of directions, but the only way to change directions is by pressing the other buttons. It’s slow and cumbersome and I rarely was able to land it in the right direction. Turning the vehicle offers no help.
- Jason can get out of the car, but players can rest assured that there will be multiple enemies hanging out by Sophia and Jason will have trouble killing them. He’ll lose a life and it’s back to the start of the stage. If Sophia is parked on top of a ladder, Jason may never go into the car.
Screenshots:
Final Opinion: No, no, NO!!! Don’t play this. Go back and play the original again.
Grade: F