Return to Genesis Review

That's your ship moving left to
right among the crawlies of the final level

From the author of Gold runner and Karate Kid II we bring you... a terminal visual assault!. Genesis is to Defender what Jinks is to Breakout; namely a sophisticated horizontal scroller that shifts like there’s no tomorrow. The game has moved firmly away from wire frame animations and is blessed with solid fills. What’s more, 16 bit power is moving those fills at the kind of speeds you’ll one day end up buying yourself a pair of Porche eyeballs to follow. In the meantime, have a bottle of Optrex handy.

It’s 6600 A.D. and 12 scientists await transportation along with fifty of their clones in the ten worlds of the Zephyr region.
The aim is to fly a high speed assault craft over, under and through richly textured landscapes populated with legions of hostile aliens. You must collect as many scientists as possible before moving o the the next world, and all along the way you have to enter into delicate negotiations with alien pursuit vehicles, i.e. blast them beyond recognition before they do the same to you.

Scientists are collected by running right through them - a method of contact they don’t seem to mind since they’re still prepared to provide you with additional resources once they’re still prepared to provide you with additional resources once they’re on board. Between levels you may choose from the group you have rescued to acquire the technology to activate exktra lasers, collision free movement, and higher speeds.

Colour has been used to great effect to enhance to speed and difficulty of the action; the backgrounds are beautiully designed, comprising a rich variety of motifs - butterflies, beeties, brains and, perhaps most appropritely, eyeballs, among the finer examples. Sound is petty good too - there’s some neat sampled voices and a great background tract by David Whittaker.

Verdict: 74/100

The scientist longingly waits for you to plough straight through him