Hover Strike

Story: (see Hover Strike CD)

Overview:
The game starts with a very-well done piece of hard-rock techno, accompaniedwith a nicely-drawn picture of your Hover craft blasting some baddies. It's nice. You have 5worlds to conquer, each with six different type of missions. Each missionhas it's own landscape, they are Desert, Volcanic, Urban, Water, Ice, andNight. All of them are varied and good-looking. Each level has it's ownmission objective(s). Some range from destroying 19 small ships, wrecking 3large, or just blasting enemies. All levels have a unique battle-plan, though really, all of them are mainly search and destroy missions. Thecontrol is strange at first, and can be frustrating. In fact I was thinking this game was -not- going to deliver the experience I was hoping for. Though, after about 5 minutes of dedicated play, you should become an old pro. And with practice, you can do some pretty interesting maneuvers. Like, accelerating full speed, than turn around backwards, while still floating forward! This come's in extremely helpful against magnetic mines. They're are a bunch of enemies. Ranging from 2 photon blasts destroy it, to 5 missiles barely dent it. Unfortunately, you have a rather small arsenal of weapons. You have photons, which are weak little balls of lazer. There are missiles, and they are obviously more powerful than a photon, but more valuable. My favorites are the guided missiles, you lock them on and watch them fly, these are cool. Mortars are the most powerful, you lob them like grenades, though I never really use them. On night missions you get flares, and you lob the flares like you would the mortars. The flares look great. Graphics-wise, Hover Strike has some of the best graphics to date. The texture-mapping is done superbly, and really looks great. There are patterns in mountains and on the ground. The water and lava even have small waves in them! The ice missions look very nice, and every level takes a fair advantage of the Jags color-palette. Night missions are very impressive, and add a little flavor to the game. There is no texture-mapping in these levels, everything is polygons. Even enemies are. These levels are real dark, if you think the other levels look eerie, you haven't seen nothing, yet! While laying down flare's, you're treated to brilliant light-sourcing, and photons light up the surrounding area as it flies, very keen. When you go up close to surrounding area's, you either have little to no pixelation. Really. Pixelation is kept to the bare minimum, and for a cartridge game, I'd say that's pretty dang good! The sound effects mainly consist of weak lazer blast, the movement of your tank, and crashing. You'll do a lot of crashing...if you don't take it slow. The sound FX are nothing to write home about, but aren't bad. The music is better, by far. The opening track is very well written, and the in-game music is no exception. Some people have said it's not varied enough...well, actually, before I heard there *were* different songs every level, I though it was the same song over and over! If you listen, there is a difference, but it's mostly the same. And that's not bad, per se, since the rythm the songs go to is very good. The night mission have some spooky music that's weird. Everything seem's to fit. There is also a pleasant female voice that will alert what weapon you are using, and when your ship is in danger. This exhancment in very well composed. The frame-rate is the only bad thing you should notice about the graphics. When things get hectic, the frame-rate suffers, and turning is fast...but painfully choppy. While going is a straight line you won't notice it, but when it really counts, you might be disappointed. The difficulty is hard, no matter what setting you're one. I'm on easy and have only completed 13 levels. The levels coming up look crazy! I hope I can survive. Plus, this game features a rarely used, yet favorable option. The ability for a second player to join in and control different parts of the craft! With two controllers, the second player can be the gunner, which mean's (s)he can move the cross hairs all over the screen, and have faster access to the weapons, and does not have ANY control over the movement of the Hover Tank. The first player now controls the vehicle without having to worry about ammunition and can drive the craft more easily. Using this option adds a whole new twist to the gaming demension, and is very fun! It also makes you wish that this useful option had made it to other games such as Iron Soldier, then again, you might wish Iron Soldiers awesome explosions had made it Hover Strike...

Graphics-9

Texture-Mapping looks great, and the night missions are very impressive. Explosions look nice, and the pixelation is practically non-existent! Many little touches such as the wavy effect in the water and lava all please the eye's. Frame-rate is adequate, but could have been better...it seems about right.

Sound/Music-9

So-so sound FX don't destract, but the music definitely has it going on! Good tunes every mission, even if they all do sound the same! The voice is very clear and sweet. Everything is good in this department!

Control-9 1/2

Five minutes of serious practice, and you can enjoy the game to the max! Pulling off those crazy maneuvers are a blast! Two-player option adds an extra point. The physics of a hover craft have been beautifully implemented.

Power-9 1/2

Want to show off the Jag? Show off this fully texture-mapped game! O.k, so the frame-rate does drop when things get hectic, but other wise, you can't go wrong!

Fun Factor-9 1/2

If you like simulations of any kind, or just like some coolio blasting baddies, this is a game you must have! Two-players is very cool, and with so many levels, so many bad guys, and so many goals, you'll love every precious second of this marvelous game!