Megamania

Gameplay

You move a ship (that seems to have a Klingon influence) at the bottom of the screen. From the top of the screen comes waves of ordinary household objects like hamburgers or bow ties. The game doesn't really make it clear as to how these items are attacking you but the back of the box seems to hint that you are hallucinating. These objects have a very erratic course and you never know when they are going to swing and crash into you. You can choose between the default guided missiles or straight ones but it is much easier to play with the guided ones. This means that your missiles will always be lined up with your ship, even if you are moving. You have a limited amount of energy to defeat a wave of attackers. This energy acts mostly like a timer for each round. This gameplay seems a little generic and doesn't really hold my attention much.

Graphics

The graphics are a little under done in Megamania. The everyday objects you are fighting are impossible to identify without a manual, the choice of colors the developer used are very poor (ex. pink hamburgers). Your ship also doesn't show much detail as it is one color. There isn't even a star effect in the background which is very disappointing. The graphics are mediocre and could have used more work.

Sound/Music

You can hear your ship power up and down in between waves and that works well. The sound for firing is also nice but there is no music to speak of and the games audio comes off as being a bit bland. The enemy objects also don't make any noise unlike Space Invaders that make noise with every step.

Control

The control works fine but could have been better tuned. You fire with the button and maneuver with the stick. The only problem is that your ship moves to slow and can barely keep up with the enemy objects. This wouldn't be a problem if the UFOs didn't move so spastically across the screen. I think that a game like this may have been done better with the paddles to control the ship. Or the programmer could have tweaked it so your ship moves faster than the objects.

Overall

It isn't that Megamania is a bad game its just that it doesn't push new leaps or bounds. The game comes off as mediocre in the end and doesn't seem so exceptional. You could do worse than a game like Megamania, but you could also do better. Buyer beware, while there may be many fans claiming that Megamaniais an amazing game I would have to disagree because I enjoy playing the much more primitive Space Invaders over this game any day. I have seen Activision do a lot better than this.