Exolon

STORY / GAMEPLAY
You take control of a soldier thaty travels across several flip-screen levels filled with various generic aliens and mounted guns, homing-missile systems, landmines and other hazards. You can defend yourself with both a gun and a limited number of rocket-propelled grenades (activated by holding the fire button). Part way through each level there is a pod in which you can upgrade to an armored exoskeleton with improved weapons and energy levels. Apart from flying enemies that attack you, you need to destroy defensive systems like cannons and radars that prevent you from getting further. Just use your grenades and you’ll soon make them blow up in tiny pieces and scattered all over the place. Exolon also needs some strategy, as you must decide (the sooner the better) which way you should go, in order to avoid enemy fire (i.e. you can use teleport gates to change platforms). Overall it's a really nice shooter with loads of action and good presentation.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Commodore version is a really nice game though it has limited colors and only a few sound effects. The game satisfies with its visuals, sound and gameplay much like the CPC and ZX counterparts. The screen is populated with various objects and a variety of sprites and on this version there is no slowdown at all (as the frame rate suffers on the CPC and the ZX version). The Commodore's version sound is also good, offering a catchy main menu tune (which comparably sounds better on the CPC!) and a few nice in-game sound sound effects (like explosions etc).