Apidya (Second Review)

Title		Apidya (Second Review)
Game Type	Shoot-em-up
Players		1
Compatibility	All
HD Installable	No
Submission	Courtesy of Sean Caszatt

Review
A sorcerer named Hexaa has tortured your lover by unleashing an army of
mutant insects upon her while she slept.  Her life hangs in the balance,
requiring an antidote that must be retrieved from the depths of the evil
Hexaa's kingdom.

Using a talisman that possesses magical powers, you transform yourself
into a bee and fly off to face Hexaa's army of insects, with a burning pain
in your soul.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like one heck of a way to start
off a game!  I liked the scenario and I love the game.  APIDYA is a
non-stop, side-scrolling shoot 'em up that has superior graphics and
gameplay compared to any shoot 'em up in recent memory.

I believe this game was originally released in 1992, but didn't make much
of a wave (at least not in the States).  Team 17 has re-released it as
a budget title and it's now available in a wider release.

There's not much to explain in terms of what you have to do.  Simply start
shooting and keep shooting.  A variety of critters usually more common in
the garden than on a computer screen will try to blast you from the sky.
Beetles, snails, grasshoppers and flying ants are among the enemies you'll
face in your hunt for the antidote.  All of them are beautifully animated
and drawn.  The scrolling backgrounds are lush and atmospheric.  The game
is another of those ECS games that look AGA.  (What is it that makes these
ECS games seem to be more impressive than most AGA titles?)

The game isn't perfect though.  Some of the backgrounds are lush and
atmospheric, but they also can camouflage quite a few enemy insects.
The game is unforgiving and merely touching these hard-to-see critters is
instant death.  Also, the game is not hard drive installable, which is
getting to be quite a turn-off these days.  With CD-ROM gaming now a
reality, can't hard drive installable games for the Amiga become the norm?
Why are Amiga owners constantly penalized by making the games available
only on bootable floppies?  And, as was the case with last issue's
ELFMANIA review, this is a game that all Amiga owners deserve to see, but
won't because the game requires the use of PAL mode.  This means that
unless your machine has a 1 MB Fatter Agnus chip or equivalent, you won't
be able to play APIDYA.

Other than those complaints which, apart from the hard drive problem,
aren't that severe, APIDYA comes highly recommended.

Alphabetical list.