Type: 3D flying action adventure
Players: 1
Levels: At least 50
Procontroller: Yes

Thirty years ago, the human star colonies were invaded by the Pernitians. Dozens of worlds were infested with Pernitian creatures. Colonists sealed precious secrets into pods to keep them from being captured. With the help of cyber-morphing technology, Earth managed to create a new type of fighter to fight off the Pernitians and recover the pods- the Transmo-Griffon or T-Griffon. The Pernitians were pushed back into their own galaxy, but at a great cost to the human worlds.

The Earth Defense Council decided it could not risk another invasion, and built a fleet of Battle Cruisers to patrol the colonies. At first, the patrols were quiet. But then, Battle Cruisers near the Perseus Star Cluster began to disappear. Others reported signs of Pernitian activity across eight different clusters before they too were lost. Fearing the worst, the Defense Council ordered the last patrol ship, the Battle Cruiser Sutherland, into the Perseus Star Cluster on a search and destroy mission.

The Sutherland carried a secret weapon though- a new variant of the T-Griffon known as the War Griffon. With morphing technology, water capability, custom weapon bays, and built in satellite mapping hookups, it is the ultimate infiltration fighter. Armed with the War Griffon, the Sutherland has the best chance of eliminating the Pernitians once and for all.

Unfortunately, by the time the Sutherland finally reached the Perseus cluster, she had used up almost all her plasma. More plasma must be found if the Sutherland is to have enough energy for her warp drives. The Pernitian generals have been hoarding the plasma in each planet cluster, making it difficult to recover more. Your job is to pilot the War Griffon and clear out each of the eight clusters of Pernitian worlds, until the plasma you find can carry the Sutherland into the Pernish cluster.

Intelligence agents report that planet Pernish is the homeworld and birthplace of the Pernitian menace. This living planet breeds warriors and conquerors by the thousands, and must be stopped before it creates another invasion fleet that could wipe out the human colonies and the rest of the galaxy as well!

Overview:

At the title screen the word "Battle" shoots toward the screen, breaking the glass. Then the word "Morph" morphs out of "battle". You see a pod fly by, then the War Griffon flys right by the screen. Then the opening cinema starts up. WOW! This full screen computer rendered cinema gets you in the mood to kick some "A".

The game features tons of levels that have been improved from CyberMorph in design and mission objectives. You no longer have to obtain pods all of the time. You can take out detonators, blow up weapon factories, take out radars, collect secret weapon components, or get pods. This adds a lot to the variety of the game that Cybermorph lacked seriously. Another cool thing on this one is that there are now planet cloakers on some of the planets. When these cloakers are taken out, a hidden planet appears at the mission select. These levels contain weapons, clips, ammo, and extra guys.

The game is very impressive in all areas. The graphics use some of the smoothest gauroud shading that I've ever seen, and the newly added texture mapping is near perfection. The enemies sport some nice animation. You might recall the worms from Cybermorph were quite sqarish. In BattleMorph, the worms look nicely rounded off with the sweetest of shading. There are many more examples of this kind of improvement.

The music offers a lot of variety with anything from thumpin' techno to sparkling underwater stuff. The music tracks are just long enough and varied that they don't get annoying. The sound effect are excellent just as Cybermorph's were. This time Skylar isn't such an annoying little #^%&....hehehe...no more, "Avoid the ground" over and over :)

The control is right on, although if you're used to Cybermoph, the reverse may mess you up a little. The War Griffon reverses much quicker than the T-Griffon.

There are more elements added into the gameplay. The underwater scenes are unbelievable! The shading is much darker and there is a wave effect that makes it look pretty spectacular. The underground areas are also well done. Some are tunnels and some are under ground rooms that remind me a little of Doom. A point I should make is that when you go into these new areas, there is NO load time at all. The music changes and your ship morphs without delay! JAGUAR CD RULES!

There are a ton of new weapons in the game. You now always have a twin shot laser instead of beginning with the weak pea shooter. You start with some Cruise bombs and Decoys. Cruise Bombs cruise along the ground and take out targets while Decoys, when launched, take all the attention off you and put it on them (the decoys). These are excellent! You gain weapons like: Mines, mortars (hold the button for longer range), Incinerator (flame thrower), Hammer (homing device that flys around killing stuff), flash (secret item), Quake (secret item), and shield.

This game is totally well rounded and will always be considered one of the Jaguar's very best.

Graphics-10

Very smooth. Good use of texture mapping in the areas that need it, such as buildings and underground tunnels. Great underwater effects. The amount of colors is superb. The enemies animate extremely well and the War Griffon looks to be light sourced. The cinemas are truly remarkable with only the slightest bit of the pixel drop-off effect.

Sound/music-10

The game has a ton of tracks, all CD quality of course. The use of techno in the tunes helps out the games excitement level. The sound effects are no exception either.

Control-10

This is one of those games that gives you no feeling when you play it. You don't feel that your hands are on a controller. It's a part of my hands!!! Take the time to get used to it, and you'll feel this way too.

Power-10

NO LOADING!!! Well, almost none. Great graphics and animation. A very ample amount of speed. The clipping has been reduced, now the horizon fades in very smooth and doesn't detract from the gameplay.

Fun factor-10

The game offers a selection of mission objectives and special levels that make it interesting to play. Cybermorph lost its flavor because you never did anything different.