Grab your gun, gel your helmet, leave your worries in the space pod! loin the SEGA FORCE game freaks as they recall that old saying, ‘Is that a Light Phaser in your pocket or ya doing an impression of a milking stool?!’

We’ve never seen an alien on the Generation Game conveyor belt! But Space Gun has plenty of ‘em — aliens and conveyor belts.

What happens when a crippled spaceship calls for help? You leap to its aid and save the lives of those onboard, that’s what! But, as one of the rescuers, you’re in for a little surprise. The mysterious vessel’s filled to the hatches with deadly aliens!

Space Gun is a guns-blazing shooting game in the spirit of classic sci-fi adventures and barnstorming movies like Aliens. Destroy those disgusting life-forms and rescue the trapped human crew.

Each area of the spacecraft s displayed in one of two perspectives. On some levels, the screen scrolls toward you, while others move from left to right (or vice versa). Aliens appear out of the woodwork and you position a cursor directly on each bad guy and blast ‘em to kingdom come! If you’ve got a Sega Light Phaser, you can use that to knock the crap out of the plebs!

On preliminary levels, only a few ugly bugs appear at any one time. Later rounds they fly at ya thick and fast! Take care when a hostage appears — don’t shoot him!

After each stage your life force and ammo-meters are refilled, depending on how many blokes you rescued.

Extra health and ammo power-ups are available to help you crack the seven stages. Travel through the spacecraft, space stations and a fighter plane, eventually ending up in its cockpit. Whether you are a gun-totin’ tyrant or a pad-poppin’ impresario, you’re gonna need all the ammo you can muster to stop those aliens putting ya mates between two slices of bread. Ready to blast?

PHASERS AND LASERS

Flames
Use button [2] to select which power-up you want. This one sends out a lovely flame ball to devour anything nasty on-screen
Big Bang
Pretty similar to the flames really. This time though, the whole shebang goes up in a puff of smoke. Most satisfying
Scythe
Surrounds the enemy in front of you, wraps him into a neat bundle and blows him sky high. Well, sort of anyway. At least it works
Ice
Feeling particularly nasty? Why not stop the dirty beggars in their tracks by freezing them to the spot. Highly amusing and most effective
Health Up
Shoot these beauties twice and you get an all-important boost to your energy points. Look out for them, ‘cos they’re quite rare
Armour
Grab hold of this and you become invincible for a short while. Usually only available in tight spots, but much needed

Ade weeps... ‘STEER CLEAR AT ALL COSTS’

I have to be blunt. This ranks as one of the worst MS games I’ve played. Not only is gameplay incredibly slow but it’s too flickin’ easy. On numerous occasions, there are gaps where all the aliens appear to have gone for a lie down and the screen’s left scrolling — the baddies are nowhere to be seen!

The 3D perspective’s very poor and the majority of backgrounds are pretty bland and samey. The only detail to be found’s in the actual aliens themselves, and they look incredibly similar, too.

Space Gun’s only good point is the Light Phaser’s control response. Usually such games are a nightmare — you continually press the trigger but little happens onscreen. This time around, Sega have got their act together. The Light Phaser’s fast and improves playability a little. The extra weapons collected en route aren’t particularly helpful, as they only last for a couple of shots.

The arcade game was pretty slick; even the Spectrum 48k version had its good points! The MS version’s as flat as a fart, unless you’ve got a Light Phaser and happen to be gaggin’ for a new game. Steer clear at all costs!

ADE 45%

Paul screams... ‘NO ACTION’

Space Gun? Should’ve been called Space Bum! This game’s crap. It should be cast into space and left to the aliens! It starts with some decent cartoony static screens explaining why you’ve been picked to go and bust some ass. Then, it’s into the action.

Hang on. There’s something wrong. There is no action! Things are about as frantic as a game of Crown Green bowls!

Don’t mention the sound! An annoying mono-channel dirge plods on and after about two minutes you begin to sing the praises of the man who invented the concept of volume control!

Space Gun has one slight redeeming feature (apart from being breakable!): it’s Light Phaser compatible, which means the fun lasts about seven or eight minutes as opposed to one or two with the joypad.

Even the inclusion of four ‘super weapons’ can’t pull this back from that empty void in space where games of this quality go. Looks like I’ll have to sort the aliens out myself. Bring me my phaser!

PAUL 43%

SF Rating

Presentation
50% - Continues, Light Phaser option, half-decent static shots in between stages
Visuals
48% - Levels look almost exactly the same! Detailed alien sprites, poor animation and scrolling
Sonics
45% - Crummy! Extremely weak in-game tunes and a few feeble blasting FX
Playability
45% - Light Phaser’s pretty nifty, but overall its slow and becomes monotonous
Lastability
43% - It’s tempting to slick the Phaser right up to the TV screen. Too easy

45%

One for Light Phaser owners desperate to play a new game

Producer
Sega/Taito
GG
n/a
MD
n/a
Memory
512K
Players
1
Price
£32.99
Rating
45
Reviewer
Sega Force magazine
Region
UK
Scans
Sega Force - Issue 12

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