Crash


The Guardian
By PSS
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Crash #2

The Guardian

The scene is set: you are at the gateway to the antimatter world of Migon. Do you dare enter, will you survive? Well of course you dare enter, but whether you will survive in this mega-lightspeed game is quite another matter, or antimatter in this case.

The simple object of the game is to speed your ship in either direction around a square which is superimposed on a space background. A smaller square is offset within the bigger, and lines radiating out from it create segments. Your ship is a sort of picture hook shaped thing that runs on the outer square. From the central square four enemy ships fly outward in three successive waves. You can centre yourself on an occupied segment and shoot the enemy with your laser, zipping around to get the next, and so on. If an enemy reaches the outer square while you are stationary on that segment - you're dead. The second screen has no segments, but meteor showers radiate out at a high speed. The third screen returns to the radial grid and the enemy are back with another danger, a V shaped energy thingie that zaps around the edges trying to get you.

Your only other weapon is a Star Smasher that destroys everything in the square. But you only have two of them. The more screens you get through, the more enemy there are. As you can see, holiday package tours keep well clear of Migon.

Comments

The Guardian

Control keys: an ample selection - Y/U/I/O/P = fire, A/S/D/F/G left, H/J/K/U/ENTER = right, B-SPACE = Star Smasher
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: lightning fast responses
Colour simple but well used
Graphics: very simple but very fast
Sound: good
Skill levels: gets tougher by the screen
Lives: 3

Comment 1

'I liked this game, one of the best yet from P.S.S., but I can imagine that it has a specialist appeal. It is insanely fast! The ship zooms round the grid at astonishing speed, so avoiding an enemy can take you uncontrollably into another. Definitely a game which develops split-second timing skills.'

Comment 2

'The Graphics are very simple, being mostly grid lines and small sprites, but them is a good use of colour even so and everything moves very smoothly. The graphics on the Star Smasher look quite exciting. I found playing the game was too fast for my taste, but it should appeal to those arcade addicts that like hand and eye coordination games.'

Comment 3

'A good, hard, fast game. I thought the asteroid sheets were a little of a let down, since you can get through by just sitting still, but everything else is madness. I wonder whether these space shoot em ups have had their day - there's something a bit 'quaint' about The Guardian - but it is an Improvement on the earlier asteroid games. If you want something simple to play but exceptionally fast, then this will probably go down well.'

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