POWERSTRIKE II
COMPILE - GAMEGEAR
Reviewed by Malc

Just goes to show you dunnit? You can have as much processing power at your disposal and still not come up with a game as playable as this! Powerstrike II was generously sent to me by 'Fro', and I didn't need much prompting to shove it up here.

As you may have worked out by now, PSII runs on Sega's Gamegear, an 8 bit handheld I bought about 6 years ago, simply because the TV adapter was ace. I'd previously read reviews of the game in that toilet-paper-quality UK mag CVG, but never managed to track it down as a cart. Hard-boiled fans will notice the creators of this game - Compile - a Japanese bunch of coders who are responsible for Spriggan, Musha Aleste, Robo Aleste, and if I'm not mistaken, Super Aleste on the SNES. PSII plays very similarly, with a well balanced selection of upgradeable weapons, an effective smart-bomb attack, and the usual plethora of baddies intent on your destruction.

Allowing for the inadequacies of the Gamegear display resolution, the graphics are great. The style is more akin to Super Aleste, very spacy, and none of those pseudo-feudal-robo-japan monsters in evidence here. Bearing in mind the small size of the cart, there's a lot of large beasties to fight, and pleasing variety in the backgrounds and enemies.

SCORE: 9/10 (yes, it's worth it. I 'wasted' a whole morning on it!)

End baddie, level one. Each level is long, with several sub-bosses. Not a bad size of boss for a lo-specced 8 bit system eh?

Flying through the clouds at high speed, watch out for the homing missiles and lasers.

The eyes on the face of this head-boss detach and fly around blatting lasers at your wee ship.

Brilliant bonus level, although it doesnt look very good here. A bit like afterburner, lock on to the baddies and try and get them all for top bonus.

Grab the H for homing missiles. My favourite weapon is the Neo Napalm gun, which is rather effective for large bosses. The small P icons upgrade your standard guns.

Sub-boss, the glum rock faces join forces and make a final concerted effort to rid themselves of your annoying presence.

Just blasted this boss with a smart bomb - the screen goes all wobbly and flashes a lot. Not a real challenge, this skull on ball bearings dies beautifully, with the balls bouncing off screen when licked.

In contrast, this ones a bugger. Shoot the spinning shields before you can even try killing it.

Cant be bothered writing a caption for this. Make one up yourself.

Select your initial weapon before starting.

Small boss, big trouble. Nasty blighter chaps.

Eh, what's this doing here? This is the first boss you meet, I didn't know if was a boss and flew on top of it - instant death. What a diddy.