A relatively unknown top-down shooter, overdrive peaked at #10 in our top 20 vertical shooters countdown, so lets take a closer look at this game, and see why it was so highly rated.

Production Notes:
===============
Ripped: 26th July 2016
Edited: 20-21 March 2018

I recorded this after searching for top rated shooters on the Amiga, and I recorded many of the shooters in the guides and specials this year, in the summer of 2016. This closed out with Apano Sin in December 2016 - which got shown earliest this season, in attempt to make the rips seem more current. This game is one I'd never seen or played, and I had the hardest time figuring out how to get the game to start from the loadout screen on my quick test go. Eventually I clicked the printer - of course.

Most of the narration was made up on the spot, having not found any info online on my first detective sweep of clues. But I made a second search during the editing, and found quite a lot of info on HOL, which I updated the review with some captions, and I also finally managed to track down the game box! - thanks to OpenRetro.org.

[ Ссылка ]

Speaking of the box, I noticed on the box this says Made in USA, copyright 1990. So this was delayed from 1990? The evidence also points to this being an NTSC game. I had no idea of that at the time, as my auto-scaling mode makes sure all games are perfect full height 4:3. This means the music may play faster on NTSC, and maybe the game is faster and smoother as well, so worth checking that out! The images on the Lemon database seem to be slightly letterboxed, so this would suggest its NTSC.

I totally made up the words over the screen, to show what everything does, as I didnt have the manual to see. Most times I say this, the manual appears just after the review goes out. But these are my best guess as to the power bars. I'm sure readers can tell me where I got it wrong. There are many "wrongs" in the video, lets hope many wrongs combine to make a right.

The narration with Voicemeeter didnt go too well this time. I noticed it was cutting off my first word of a new narration, even when I left a gap or pause to speak, and this meant I had to insert those single words into the narration again individually. Secondly, the microphone would click and bang most times I breathed in. I dont know why, and must have something to do with the software. I had to edit out all the silent pauses in the narration, and the meant some sentences became very broken up. These two aspects combined means I will be unlikely to use the voicemeeter from now on, and will go back to waiting for the audio software to fix it.

Danscore
The 64 colour graphics and 128 items on screen is impressive, and the later levels feel more like a traditional shooter, but the sprawling first level is questionable whether it encourages the player, or just gets them lost. I feel the game has a lot on offer gameplay and experience wise, and the loadout music is especially memorable! I like the fact the game has lots of weapons, although it can still get confusing when there are tons of friendly and enemy bullets on screen, requiring the player to be extra careful to notice the enemy orange red bullet orbs. The bosses are also too big on screen, and so if you dont have the side shot by the end, you will get crushed. The weapons also seem weedy, compared to SWIV, Apano Sin, Tubular Worlds, and XP8. All these annoyances aside, even though this is not so memorable as other games we have reviewed, it still has quality, and is worth 7 out of 10 for effort.

свернуть