Over Horizon (NES, 1991)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-9 Challenge-7 Story-5
Level Design-7 Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
+
Two gun drones (two different, cuztomisable formations)
Some large sprites
Some good bosses
Somewhat customizable weapons (set homing or blast level, 5 points to distribute)
Respawn on the spot until losing all lives (you lose your weapons though)
Projectiles can be blocked with the gun drones
Manually adjustable speed (four levels)
The soundtrack uses the sound chip well (though some instruments cut off when firing)
Some mini-bosses
Pretty interactive environments for its time (hit switches to open doors, bump ice blocks into each other to open a path, waterfalls pull you downwards etc.)
Shoot forward and backward from the get go
Decent cliffhanger ending
Sometimes intense gameplay
Extra mode (just swaps some sprites for new, silly ones?)
Not much slowdown or flicker
+/-
Fairly easy to rack up lives (up to 10 or so)
Borrows heavily from Gradius and R-Type
No weapon inventory
Forgiving hit detection
-
No difficulty options
Some long pauses in the action (usually before a boss)
Uneven difficulty (mostly easy when fully powered up, respawn with no gun drones or weapon levels)
Somewhat repetitive final stage (also has a maze structure)
The three weapons are pretty samey
Some bosses take too long to kill (maybe with the wrong weapon?)
No checkpoints after losing all lives
Some trial & error (boss patterns, attacks from behind)
Some bland backgrounds, speed is reset after using a continue
Level Design-7 Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
+
Two gun drones (two different, cuztomisable formations)
Some large sprites
Some good bosses
Somewhat customizable weapons (set homing or blast level, 5 points to distribute)
Respawn on the spot until losing all lives (you lose your weapons though)
Projectiles can be blocked with the gun drones
Manually adjustable speed (four levels)
The soundtrack uses the sound chip well (though some instruments cut off when firing)
Some mini-bosses
Pretty interactive environments for its time (hit switches to open doors, bump ice blocks into each other to open a path, waterfalls pull you downwards etc.)
Shoot forward and backward from the get go
Decent cliffhanger ending
Sometimes intense gameplay
Extra mode (just swaps some sprites for new, silly ones?)
Not much slowdown or flicker
+/-
Fairly easy to rack up lives (up to 10 or so)
Borrows heavily from Gradius and R-Type
No weapon inventory
Forgiving hit detection
-
No difficulty options
Some long pauses in the action (usually before a boss)
Uneven difficulty (mostly easy when fully powered up, respawn with no gun drones or weapon levels)
Somewhat repetitive final stage (also has a maze structure)
The three weapons are pretty samey
Some bosses take too long to kill (maybe with the wrong weapon?)
No checkpoints after losing all lives
Some trial & error (boss patterns, attacks from behind)
Some bland backgrounds, speed is reset after using a continue