Silkworm (Second Review)


Title           Silkworm (Second Review)
Game Type	Shoot'Em Up
Players		1
HD Installable  Yes (With Patch)
Compatibility	All Amigas (WHDLoad patch available)
Company		Virgin Mastertronic
Submission      Submission      Seppo Typpö (groucho@pp.inet.fi) Profiled Reviewer

Review
Imagine coming home in the evening after a heavy day at the work (or
school). You still have enough energy to play games on your Amiga, but
you're too tired to concentrate on something which needs thinking. So you
load up Silkworm, the predecessor of one of the best vertical shoot'em ups
on Amiga, SWIV. Only this time things move horizontally, as you fly your
helicopter (or drive your jeep) from left to right, eliminating everything
that comes against you.

Silkworm is about pure action. Fans of SWIV will immediately notice
similarities between the two games - the thundering sound effects, a
clever two-player mode and the way powerups appear. Unlike SWIV, Silkworm
is divided into separate stages which all end with a confrontation with
some big end-of-level boss. The action comes in thick and fast - still,
the perfect controls and cleverly placed powerups allow skilful players
to dig deep into the levels. There are some nice touches (like one place
where the player has to shoot a hole in a wall to pass through).

The presentation of the game is pretty much faultless - perfect scrolling
with lots of things happening in the background (like an aircraft carrier
launching its fighters). The sound effects are excellent and best heard in
high volume through a sophisticated stereo system. The gameplay is
excellent too - a spot-on difficulty curve and excellent controllability
makes the player's own abilitites the only restricting factor for success.
One minor nag is that there is little variation in the end-of-level bosses
(there seems to be only two types of them) and the fact that you lose all
your power-ups if you die - not nice if you have progressed to the later
levels where enemies get tougher and appear in bigger numbers.

Silkworm is a wonderful little stress-reliever and one of the best Amiga
shoot'em ups - playing it is almost a therapeutic experience - play a
couple of hours of this and the pressures raised by your idiot boss,
nagging wife, annoying neighbour etc are literally blown away.




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