Aleste

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The story of Aleste is based on a human-made Supercomputer called "DIA 51". This mega computer has been infected by a hybrid virus which is spreading like wildfire and now it acts by itself making plans to eliminate the human race. When Yuri, Ray's girlfriend, is injured in one of DIA 51' assaults, Raymond Waizen (the hero) has all the causes in the world to get rid of DIA 51 once and for all, flying his Aleste fighter. The difficulty level of this game is noticeably high. Known outside of Japan as Power Strike, Aleste was released in America as a mail-only limited edition shoot 'em up game.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
When I first played this game on the MSX, I was absolutely amazed by its graphics (especially the backgrounds) and the fluid animation of the sprites! But this technically stunning game has "loose" controls and frustrating difficulty! The sound features a great chip tune at the intro screen and a few nice and catchy sound effects and soundtracks during gameplay. Aleste is a very well made vertical scrolling shooter with some nice bolt-on weapons and a variety of great level graphics, pushing the MSX2 hardware to its limits!