I AM BEST BUGGY - Venus The Flytrap (Amiga)
8Sending one robot to destroy the other killer robots you created... are we playing Insect Terminator?
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The overuse of pesticides and intensive farming has caused a breakdown in the ecosystem, killing off all the insects. To restore balance, the scientists create new breeds of cyber-insects, using hastily-learnt genetic engineering techniques. Predictably, a DNA fault in the creatures causes them to go mad and swarms of killer insects wreak havoc on the planet.
Total disaster can only be prevented by a single, special insect: Venus, The Fly Trap. You guide this insect equivalent of Robocop through the ten areas of the game, which include the Forbidden Forest, Wood World, Death Valley and the Stygian Creek. Your task is to walk Venus along left-scrolling scenery leaping chasms, dodging or killing insects and picking up bonus items.
There are many of these, some of which give you multi-fire cannons, R-Type-style beam-up weapons, extra lives or flying power. Although you can just get close to a target and pump the fire button like mad, extra military potential certainly makes the job quicker and easier. With time-limits imposed on each stage, speed is definitely your greatest need!
Venus would be a simple game but for the cunning pitfalls, which are planted here and there.
The most obvious are the icons marked on the floor. These make you lose time, bounce you into the path of gunfire or catapult you onto the ceiling. Fighting inverted is a technique you must master. Some bonus pods are also not at all helpful. Some flip the joystick direction to cause confusion, others turn into skulls which drain all your life away.
Between each level you are thrown into a bonus sub-game. Here you fly across the screen as hordes of insects bear down on you, shooting and dodging like crazy, picking up energy and bonus pods as they're released. Run out of energy and the sub-game is over, so be quick.
The final twist lies with the bonus rooms, hidden in chasms. To find them you must put your life at risk, because they're invisible. If there's no entrance in the hole you've dropped into, that's it. Goodnight Sooty! If you are lucky enough to find one, then you get to collect tons of bonus goodies before you come back to the game proper and play on.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Venus is a well-presented game, featuring attractive colours and sprites throughout. The scrolling and animation is smooth, with very little flicker. Graphic styles change every five stages so there's plenty of variety as you work your way through. Music is a little twee, but not unbearable, (it is possible to switch it off it you don't like it) and sound effects are competent.
LASTING INTEREST
Some of the levels, notably the Creeping Swamp and the Kaverns, contain excellent backgrounds which help to brighten up the hard slog to completion. Larger, more deadly insects also contribute to the long-term appeal, as do the Giant Cannons which pop up out of the floor.
Insects themselves get 'tooled up' in the last few levels, providing many a surprise: the docile-looking slugs you meet on Level One have big brothers with Armalites on Level Ten.
JUDGEMENT
For an 'original' game, it really isn't that original at all. It has a good plot and competent shoot-'em-up programming, but follows the template of most other games in the genre. Fortunately, the right elements have been mixed in the right proportions, and assembled well. The end result is an addictive, playable game, with plenty of fun and excitement. At the price, it's one to have if you enjoy a good ecological bash!
- Reviewed by Neil Jackson for Amiga Format, p.41, Issue 15, October 1990