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Whilst everyone wants their shoot 'em ups to be fast, Cardiaxx goes from the sublime to the Cor Blimey! It is obvious from the minimal gameplay that Electronic Zoo have seen how fast the Amiga can scroll and based a game around it. The result is a frenetic and relatively playable blast which, sadly, doesn't contain enough meat to keep the player interested. A variant on the Armalyte theme, Cardiaxx pits the player against the might of the Cardiaxx empire within a two-way-scrolling play area. Within this area a series of alien attack waves and guardians appear and these must be taken out before the ever-decreasing time-limit expires. And that, dear reader, is Cardiaxx.
The game is split into four areas, within which the player must exercise their trigger finger and reflexes, whilst leaving their brain in neutral. These levels, despite the addition of bas-relief or organic backdrops, are pretty much alike with the player destroying one wave of Cardiaxx fighters before using their on-screen indicators to locate the next. I have a feeling that Electronic Zoo were hoping that the nail-biting speed of the game would trick the player into ignoring the lack of variety, but it actually has the opposite effect. Providing that the player survives the almost inevitable energy-sapping collisions with the enemy, they eventually reach a pair of guardians (who remain the same throughout the game – whatever happened to variety?) and who block access to the next level. Following a short space-bound sequence, the next level is then entered.

Like so many games from the shoot'em up genre, Cardiaxx is intially very playable, and the urge to have another crack is akin to all those 8-bit games we so fondly remember. However, once the first level has been beaten and the ensuing space scene passed, the repetitive levels erode any further interest. If larger space bases or extra background detail was added, perhaps this would have helped, but I suspect that this would have slowed it down considerably. As a budget release, I would have no hesitation recommending Cardiaxx as it is perfectly suited for the odd blast whenever the need to do some damage arises.
Unfortunately, as it stands, twenty-six quid is too much to pay for such limited carnage.
Steve Merrett