Power Strike/Aleste (SMS, 1988)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-8 Challenge-8.5 Story-4
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-7
+
Some great enemy designs
Mini-bosses
Well-sized weapons arsenal (8 weapons with 3 levels each)
Frantic
Respawn on the spot (with a no.1 special weapon - not enough later on)
Timed weapons (can't abuse the best ones)
Good sound effects
Good length (6 long stages)
Hidden rank system (works the same as in Zanac? Seems a bit less pronounced here though)
-
Repetitive
No pacing (just waves upon waves of random enemies)
Slowdown
Very similar to Zanac
Very hard to recover after dying from round 5 onwards
No speed adjustment and backwards diagonal movement is slower than forward diagonal movement
Some useless weapons
Special weapons fly upwards after you shoot the containers (making it easy to miss them by shooting the containers right after they enter the screen)
Timed bosses (you'll have trouble killing some of them if you're not powered up)
Level Design-7 Frustration-9 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-7
+
Some great enemy designs
Mini-bosses
Well-sized weapons arsenal (8 weapons with 3 levels each)
Frantic
Respawn on the spot (with a no.1 special weapon - not enough later on)
Timed weapons (can't abuse the best ones)
Good sound effects
Good length (6 long stages)
Hidden rank system (works the same as in Zanac? Seems a bit less pronounced here though)
-
Repetitive
No pacing (just waves upon waves of random enemies)
Slowdown
Very similar to Zanac
Very hard to recover after dying from round 5 onwards
No speed adjustment and backwards diagonal movement is slower than forward diagonal movement
Some useless weapons
Special weapons fly upwards after you shoot the containers (making it easy to miss them by shooting the containers right after they enter the screen)
Timed bosses (you'll have trouble killing some of them if you're not powered up)