Fusion
| Developer: Bullfrog | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Electronic Arts | Sound: |
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| Year: 1988 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Action-maze | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
5/10 | |
“Fuuusion … ah!”
The first title produced by the British company Bullfrog presents itself as a cross between Fire Power and Xenon, a bit like Parallax (Commodore 64, 1986): you freely control your ship above a futuristic complex and can land to have a closer look. In Parallax, you entered buildings to abduct scientists. Here, you need to find the pieces of a bomb and blow it up.
In practice, you wander around with your little tank in bizarre gardens. You’re greeted by missiles and turret fire. Eventually, you find a larger ship, get in (press the space bar), then take off and drift aimlessly, but this time while flying. In the end, you take one too many shots to the face and explode. Game over!
I’m not sure the mix of shooting and puzzle-solving really works. Fans of the first don’t want to complicate things by searching for a key or solving a riddle, and those who enjoy puzzles probably don’t want to be shot at relentlessly.
Notice how the playing area is so small in the screenshots; probably the collateral damage of over-ambitious technical aspirations (multi-directional scrolling, fine backgrounds, and a large number of things displayed at once).
An original idea: the score in this game is displayed in an extraterrestrial language!
Update:
A comment on Lemon Amiga informs us that the version of the game available on emulation sites is faulty, making the first level impossible to complete (so it’s not only me who’s terrible!). That’s why I’m offering an exceptional, non-cracked copy for download.
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