Previous Next

Terra Cresta is one of a crop of arcade conversions that have cropped up recently.

It's getting difficult to tell them apart. Playing Terra Cresta, for example, is more or less the same experience as playing Xevious.

It features a predominantly yellow background, the sprites are pretty smooth and the whole thing is quite detailed.

And, actually, there are few reasons to choose this one over Xevious (see page 23).

The idea is to fly along killing things. Now I know this doesn't sound all that novel and quite honestly it isn't easy to find anything very original to say about the concept.

But the one thing Terra Cresta does have going for it is it's extremely difficult. Not only are there waves and waves of aliens which swoop down on you lobbing air mines at odd angles, but some of the aliens venture back on to the screen from below, just when you think you've got past them.

There is slightly more to it than continually prodding your Fire button. The main feature of the game is the way you can build up your ship by blasting numbered silos. At each one you can add something to your ship. When, finally, your ship is completely assembled you get a crack at a robot which appears after each pass of the planet surface.

By the third pass only your ship in ultimate souped-up form can handle it. Lest this sounds like a complex element in the game, it isn't really: it still all comes down to blasting.

Graphics are fair, sound is the usual pseudo two-channel wobbly stuff and I guess if you're a big fan of the arcade machine you'll be pleased. I didn't actually dislike it and maybe I'd have been more enthusiastic if I hadn't seen Lightforce and Xevious first. It's certainly very hard indeed but somehow I couldn't get very enthusiastic about it.

Label: Imagine Author: In-house Price: £7.95 Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: Graham Taylor

***

Conveyor-belt blast 'em up arcade conversion. Not bad, but not really exceptional either. Its strength is it's a toughy.