Owners of Sega's Lignt Phaser have very few games to use with their peripheral. With only Gangster Town and Shooting Gallery supplementing the free Marksman Shooting/Trap Shooting cartridge given away with the gun.
However, things hove taken a turn for the better with the release of Rescue Mission, a fun-packed arcade game that requires very fast reactions and accurate shooting.
The scenario is easy enough to understand: allied troops hove been badly injured and are currently trapped behind enemy lines. They must be rescued, and you've been assigned the task...
The only mode of transport available to the casualty area is by a handcart, which trundles its way along an old disused railroad. On board are three medical experts who can dress the soldier's wounds to enable them to make their way back to the safety of headquarters.
The cart trundles along the track, which wends its very convoluted way across the multi-directional scrolling landscape. At regular intervals along the track are the wounded troops, who wave white flags. When the cart reaches them, it stops while medical treatment is given, and then continues on its way while the soldier runs off the screen to safety.
While this is happening, enemy soldiers run on screen and attempt to kill the medics on board by blasting them with their machine guns. One shot slows the cart down, two reduces it to a crawl while a third is fatal to all on board. This is where you come in. Using rhe light phaser, you have to blast all enemy troops before they have the chance to accomplish their evil deed. The gun fires as quickly as you can pull the trigger, and the onus is on fast, accurate shooting.
When the cart reaches the end of the track a bonus is awarded for the number of medics left and the amount of soldiers.
There are five different landscapes: jungle, swamp, village, bridge and ammo depot, which offer the player an increasingly difficult challenge.
On the first landscape only infantry attack, but on the second level they're joined by deadly air troopers - jet-packed soldiers who fly around the screen at great speed. Occasionally, Special Force soldiers appear. These highly dangerous commandoes are very fast moving and are capable of destoying the cart with a single blast.
Adding even more hassle are grenades thrown by soldiers, boomerangs, bazooka bombs, balloon bombs which float in from the side of the screen and guided missiles - possibly the hardest to hit of them all.
When a soldier is resued, he leaves behind a special package which is automatically picked up when shot; either a protector, first aid kit or smart bomb. Protectors make the medic immune from a Special Force attack, a first aid kit removes one point of damage and a smart bomb destroys everything on-screen.
When the cart reaches the end of level five, a mega-bonus is award for the amount of medics remaining - up to a huge 450,000 points if all three lives are still intact.
I must say that I enjoyed playing Rescue Mission very much - it's a fast and furious game which requires a very high level of sustained concentration to blast the myriad of enemy troops. I felt exhausted after one session! The appeal might wear off after a while - the game does get a bit repetitive - but it's by far the best Light Phaser game around.
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