Amiga Power Review
Issue 25/ May 1993
Authors: Mark Winstanley, Stuart Campbell |
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Lethal Xcess
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A vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up and a real blast from the past.
It's lethal alright, but is it just too much to handle?
STUART: Hey, this takes me back a bit. We haven't seen a good old simple
vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up since, ooh, as far back as I can remember,
Warzone (from Core) back in issue 2. It's not that surprising, really - the
vertical scroller is something of a relic these days, even the Mega Drive (where
pretty much every game that isn't a platformer is a scrolling shoot-'em-up
almost never bothers with the format any more. Still, it's not an inherently
limited format - SWIV proves there's no barrier to a vertical scroller being
brilliant if you can handle it right.
MARK: Mm, but there's something about Lethal Xcess that makes you look at it
and go "Yeah, I've played this one before, is it out on budget now?"
even though it's a new release. I think the reason must be that, despite the
totally adequate game mechanics (smooth scrolling, no slow down despite huge
waves of attacking enemies on screen) and pretty graphics, the entire game's got
an archaic aura around it, stirring long-forgotten memories of yesteryear.
STUART: Hang on a minute, there's nothing wrong with yesteryear. Some of my
best friends are ancient arcade games...
MARK: Have you ever spent all day looking forward to going to the fair? The
day drags by, you dash home and scoff your dinner down while the 130 gigawatt
speakers of the distant Waltzer thump away to annoy your mum. It goes dark, you
dash down to see the flashing lights, and as you get closer, the smells of
diesel fumes and candy floss mingle together to create the definitive smell that
yells 'Fun Time!' at every fibre of your body.
STUART: Sob.
MARK: And then you get there, and it's all completely crap. The attendants
hassle you for the right change and make suggestive remarks to your girlfriend,
the most exciting element of your Big-Wheel ride is praying that the bolt
holding you to the rickety frame doesn't break when you're at the top, and the
candy floss is sickly sweet in a way you'd forgotten it could be. Disillusioned
by rides that squeak alarmingly and pin you against your friends using excessive
amounts of centrifugal force, you head to the arcade, which looks like a
Portakabin bedecked in fairy lights. Getting closer, you discover that it
actually IS a Portakabin bedecked in fairy lights, and that all the best games
are surrounded by great crowds of children who may be smaller than you, but have
the advantage of superior numbers. You pass the sad cases playing the wheezing
and ancient fruit machines, and finally get to the back, the elephant's
graveyard of arcade games. Okay, so most of them don't work and half of them
take your ten pee without giving you a game, but they're the originals, the
classics, the games that inspired all others. This is the dusty, slightly pongy
place that you think you've seen Lethal Xcess before. Yuk.
STUART: Ooh, you MTV kids. At least you still only have to put ten pee in.
Arcade games these days, 50p a go, mumble mutter mumble.
MARK: Yeah, Stu, and a Lada only costs a fifth as much as a Porsche. Which
would you rather drive, honestly?
STUART: Mark, that's a crap analogy. Which is best, a zebre or a pomegranate?
MARK: Sorry?
STUART: Exactly. But we're getting off the point. This is the follow-up to
Wings Of Death, a pretty fabby little zapper released by Thalion a few years ago
now. Now, Wings Of Death looked great for its time, but the main problem with
Lethal Xcess is that it looks exactly the same.
MARK: No, I disagree.
STUART: What, you mean you don't think it looks exactly the same?
MARK: No, I think that's not the main problem. This is the hardest game I
think I've ever played - I've been at it two days now and I'm still on the first
level, and that's at 'Easy'. Thinking about what it's going to be like later on
is scaring me - and I like guns.
STUART: And I'm a BMX Bandits fan, but I got halfway through level two on my
forth go. Come on, Mark, you got stuck on the first level of Videokid.
MARK: Hey, that's a hard game!
STUART: Yeah, right. You DO have a point, though - Lethal Xcess is probably
the hardest shoot-'em-up I've played since Project X, and losing all your
power-ups when you die, after it taking such a long time to build up any decent
ones, is big-time frustrating. But at least it's fair - there's no slack
playtesting here, everything that kills you, you at least get to see first.
Would you rather have yet another game you can finish the same day you buy it?
Or are you [DRAMATIC PAUSE] some kind of jessie?
MARK: Are you calling my pint a puff?
STUART: What's it to you if I am?
MARK: Outside, now.
MARK WINSTANLEY / STUART CAMPBELL
THE BOTTOM LINE
STUART: The power-up method of choosing the same type of icon to increase your
firepower is a nice idea, and the smart bombs at the start of every new life
saves you getting stuck on the same bit every time. A good, solid,
no-holds-barred vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up...
MARK: ...for people whose reaction time can be measured in picoseconds. Unlike
Stuart, it's just too hard. Uninspired, too.
MARK: Lethal Xcess is nowhere near as entertaining as SWIV, so why should you
bother buying a second-rate vertically-scrolling blaster, when there's a better
one available? With the screen filled with huge enemies who trash you before you
can pump enough shots into them, no shields, no smart bombs and only one
continue, this game quickly stops being challenging and just gets annoying.
Unless you're heavily into one-dimensional shooting games that approach the
'totally impossible' level of difficulty, you're never going to see anything
past level two.
STUART: Well, (like Mark) it's pretty nasty-minded and it's certainly no
SWIV,
but if you want a serious test of your shoot-'em-up skills, this is the stiffest
for a long time.
THE BOTTOM LINE A1200
MARK: It's the same - choose the 'enhanced display' and 'disable CPU cache'
options.
70%
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©1993 Amiga Power
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