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Tabloid newspapers in the future won’t be dissimilar to the ones we have now, according to the soothsayers at Virgin Mastertronic. Aliens from a far-off galaxy have been libelled by the ‘Soon Day Spirit’. Will they sue? No – they are going to wipe out the Earth instead. Enter our last defences: the Gemini Wing.
What lies behind this strong contender for the ‘Scenario of the Year’ award is, in fact, a rather superior vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up, with many of the usual features and a few unusual ones. The now standard collect-an-icon-to-upgrade-your-weapon system is still there, but has been altered slightly to create a ‘gunball’ system. When certain aliens are killed, they leave behind an icon, with up to six or seven hanging around waiting to be collected at any one time on screen. Naturally, with so many to collect, they do not all provide a better upgraded weapon. Each icon will provide a short burst of increased weapon fire, before your ship reverts to the standard weapon.

Unfortunately, this new system does not work as well as the more traditional tooling-up system. The availability and potency of the icons seems to be a fairly random event, which means you can get a long way with one game, and absolutely nowhere the next, because there are not any icons. This proves immensely frustrating, as it has little to do with skill, and a great deal to do with luck.

In addition, the fire button has to be held down for about a second before the upgraded weapon fire is released, and while a second is not very long, in the middle of a shoot ‘em up it is plenty of time in which to die. Although over time you will learn to ration icons with a greater effect, it is still frustrating, and the more usual system is preferable.

As I have already mentioned, the action is incredibly fast and ferocious, with a myriad of different aliens attacking at once. Commendably, the speed of the game is maintained no matter how much is happening off screen, although the music slows a little. Sometimes there is just too much going on, with too many aliens and bullets heading your way, and the easiest way to get to the next section is to die and fly your next ship through while it is still at the usual ‘flashing invincible’ stage. I am sure that over time the player would become more adept at dodging so many aliens, but initially it is a little discouraging to die on such a regular basis. The sound is good, with a couple of nice tunes and sound effects, the graphics are blocky on occasion, and, at times, it is nigh on impossible to see what is going on.

This has, despite the power up problems, the makings of a good shoot’ em up. It is just a shame that it is that little bit too frenetic and, visually, god-awful mess.


Unfortunately, the Amiga version is not on a par with its eight bit buddies. Graphics are of course superior, but could have been better. Sound is weak and unmemorable, and gameplay is much slower and simpler. All in all, a fairly standard Amiga shoot ‘em up, disappointing when stood next to the 64 version. Amiga disk costs £19.99.

GRAPHICS
PLAYABILITY
LASTABILITY
OVERALL 78%
63%
64%
64%



Sean Kelly