101 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
101 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
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ROTOX
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The genre of arcade-style games is heavily-influenced these days by the
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conservative decisions made at the big cartridge system companies -- Sega,
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Nintendo, and NEC. For the most part, side-scrolling platform games,
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horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-ups, and some pseudo-3D first-person
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perspective designs dominate the field. How refreshing, then, to see a top-
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down, rotoscoped action game that makes use of solid-fill technology to create
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the playing area for each level. ROTOX is an ingenious and original design
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which functions as much as a puzzle adventure as it does a spaceships and
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robots shoot-'em-up. (This review is based on the Amiga version.)
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After the intro screens throw some large-scale animation and James-Bond style
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music at the player, the game begins. A document-based check serves as copy
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protection, and once passed, leads to the initiating cyborg drop. Rotox, half-
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man, half-machine, has been placed in a series of ten increasingly difficult
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mazes to both test and train his abilities. The player controls Rotox from
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overhead via joystick.
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Each level consists of nine different but related maze puzzles. Each of the
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ten levels has a theme, and the manual includes a complete overview map of all
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levels to give the player some sense of what's in store. The "Auto City"
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level, for instance, consists of a series of cartoon-like vehicle pictures,
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which serve as the two-dimensional platform on top of which the player
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negotiates Rotox.
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The platforms Rotox has to deal with are all polygons, perched in space; walk
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Rotox off the edge of a platform and he dies (unless he has a special jet-pack
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with fuel; then he's in business!). Some polygons move, expanding,
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contracting, sliding back and forth, and rotating, and thus require careful
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anticipation of the right moment and the right distance to cross.
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The platform designs alone would make for an interesting game. But of course
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the main project during play is to wipe out the endless waves of bad guys to
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get to the end. Enemy units are all bit-mapped sprites, and offer a touch of
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the hat to previous classic arcade games; the opening scene in level one, for
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instance, is a scaled-down encounter with Space Invaders. Defender-like snakes
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wiggle across the screen, and other recognizable sprites and sprite-patterns
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crop up as one progresses through the game. At least on the first few levels,
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the Ultimate Bad Guy is usually represented not by a single impossible sprite,
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but by massive clusters of enemy sprites which have to be defeated to gain
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access to a power-up of one sort or another. Some sprites serve as generators,
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issuing attacking creatures until they are destroyed. Certain sprites home in
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on the player instead of following a set pattern, which definitely ups the
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tension level during play.
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Surrounding the main action screen, instruments, maps and radar provide a
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rudimentary simulation-style interface. Charge indicators, weapons readiness,
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location of enemy sprites, and a zone completion marker help chart progress
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through the game. Rather than the usual number of limited lives, ROTOX
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provides an energy bar which depletes with each hit on or loss of a cyborg.
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There's enough margin in the energy bar to allow for quite a bit of play
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before having to start over, which does much to lower frustration levels.
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Enemy sprites can be eliminated either by walking into them or shooting them
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down. Three different kinds of improved weapons are available in the game, as
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well as the jet-pack, which allows crossing of the interstices between
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platform elements. Once a sector in a level is cleared, the screen flashes
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briefly to indicate that it's time to move on. Energy does not deplete with
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the passage of time, so the player can stop and plan the next move, based on
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what the radar indicates is out there. Getting from sector to sector is
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usually tricky; the route to completion is usually indirect. However, the
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player can choose to explore areas in any order and direction desired; no
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arbitrary obstacles are set up to lock play into The One True Path.
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The Amiga version comes complete with a musical soundtrack and a mass of wild
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sound effects. Some sounds are thrown in just for atmosphere, while others
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emanate from weapons and enemy sprites. The solid-fill animations move and
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rotate smoothly throughout, no matter how intense the action gets. The bit-
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mapped graphics, while mostly small, are cleverly designed and grouped, and
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intelligently motivated. The game pegs itself at just the right level of
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challenge, and there's plenty to dig into once you get going.
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Problems? Well, the game comes on two floppy disks, and while it seems to
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recognize an external drive, unless drive DF0: is used to insert both disks,
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the game hangs (at least on my older-style A500 with 1MB of RAM and only 512K
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of CHIP RAM; the design may require more CHIP RAM and the newer machines to
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make use of extra drives). At least floppy-swapping is kept down to an
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absolute minimum; most of the actual game resides on one disk; the other
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contains the intro and ending animations. The endless waves of explosions,
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while fun (ROTOX reminds me of NY WARRIORS in that regard), do seem excessive
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after awhile. And the manual is fleshed out with yet another one of those
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mini-novellas that have virtually nothing to do with gameplay (this one's at
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least readable and amusing, though). Other than that, there's not much to
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complain about in the design.
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ROTOX comes on two uncopyable disks, and requires 512k of RAM to play. It
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will work on all A1000s, A500s, and A2000s. A single floppy drive and joystick
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are all that's needed to run the game. Further copy protection is added on top
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of the disk protection in the form of a manual look-up scheme. No hard disk
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installation is possible.
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Certainly not at the cutting edge of software design, ROTOX nevertheless
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introduces some new concepts in the way it effectively combines elements
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usually separated into different genres and styles of gaming. It's eminently
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playable as well. Definitely worth a look for those two reasons alone.
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ROTOX is published by U.S. Gold and distributed by Accolade.
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