Introducing Mega Apocalypse
Hi there!
It's about time to introduce another one of my C64 all-time favourites, the sequel to Crazy Comets:
Mega Apocalypse:
You rarely find that a game's name will already fully describe it, as it is the case here. In C64 terms this really is the Mega Apocalypse, driving the systems capabilities close to meltdown.
Mega Apocalypse is a single screen shoot'em up, that shares some similarities with Asteroids. Your main aim is nearly the same, blowing up everything on the screen, mostly various sized planets and comets. The major differences are that there's no acceleration/inertia/friction and that the game is fast as hell - think Kaboom.
Each wave consists of a certain number of objects entering the screen. Usually it starts out with some extras like a missile, auto-fire or even extra lives. Then one by one planets enter the screen. When they're still far away and small, they cannot hurt you and only take a single hit to get destroyed. when they reach full size though, they get really dangerous and nasty to destroy. Then, some waves end with some really big planets (boss planets? 
). They take lots of hits and move really fast and wild.
While playing, Mega Apocalypse is pure adrenalin. It is almost required that you "zone" into it to get anywhere beyond Wave 4. There's no more real thinking possible, just pure reaction.
A major driving factor is the music from Rob Hubbard. Pure genious, he delivered one of his best tunes ever with the soundtrack. As if this wasn't enough, the game uses several speech samples, like saying "Missile" when you collect one or "Get Ready" when a wave starts.
The graphics also challenge Arcade machines. The screenshot above sure doesn't do it justice. According to an interview with the programmer, the starfield is made of 144 "software sprites" for example - you have to see that in motion!
Greetings,
Manuel
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