#0019 Phoenix

So today I played Phoenix, a 1980 shoot 'em up Developed by the late Amstar Electronics.

Look, I'm going to be honest here people, this game didn't impress me. With games like Gaxian, and Tempest, I just felt that this game was trying really hard to be Galaxian, while at the same time having it's own unique voice and it just... Didn't work.

Okay, so let's take a look at this game. You play as a weird looking red ship and you're job is to kill these stupid birds that fly around the screen and try to kill you. Just like that other game. In order to advance to the next level you must kill all the birds on the screen, the enemies getting harder with each level.

I have to give the game credit, I truly do feel like they're not just trying to rip off Galaxian, and are honestly trying to set themselves apart from all the other Galaxian clones that were filling the market. The most striking difference between the two is the fact that the enemies progress. This is something I haven't seen much on the list. As you progress from level to level the birds go from flying around at random and trying to suicide bomb you, just like the other game, to more different birds that fly around and try to suicide bomb you. But after the second level, the enemies actually change completely. Now they're these little eggs that fly horizontally down the screen at you. Soon they hatch into large birds that can only be killed by shooting them in the middle. This took me slightly by surprise as I didn't expect such a dramatic change in enemy, especially not from such a blatant clone of that other game. You do one more round of the weird egg birds and finally you get to the boss. Yes you heard me right, a boss. An honest to goodness boss, the first boss of an Arcade game in history. And while the boss doesn't pose too much challenge, it was still refreshing to see so much variety from a shoot 'em up game.

Another thing that Phoenix brings to the table is it's shield mechanic. At any point in the game you may press a button and activate a shield that protects you from anything for about two seconds. You cannot move while the shield is in place, but you're also completely invincible while it's up. While it's a good idea, and one that hadn't been tried yet, it wasn't very well implemented. The shield often doesn't react in time. A lot of times I'd find myself in harms way and pressing the shield button only to find that I had apparently pressed it too late as the bullet hit my fragile craft and exploded into a dozen or so little parts.

The last thing that Phoenix tries to do is set a different tone than that other game. While that other game has a bright and heroic feel to it, what with it's bright colors and catchy little tune at the beginning, Phoenix tries to be a more atmospheric with it's classical opening theme played in a very melancholy minor key. It's very pretty, and changes the tone quite a bit, but I never got that “creepy” vibe that they seemed to be going for. Instead the music seemed to clash with the bright colors and cute little egg birds.

Overall, while I do have to admit that Phoenix does sound good on paper with it's shield mechanics, it's advancing enemies and different tone, the end result is more of a mixed bag, and while I did enjoy myself, it still just reminded me of clone of that other game. I personally think that had they pushed the game a little further, they could have had something great. Something as simple as fixing the shield to work correctly, changing the color scheme and making the music less mysterious and more unnerving would really serve to put the game on a different playing field than that other game. I realize a lot of people really like this game and I'm in no way saying that Phoenix is a BAD game, I just wasn't impressed, and thought that it had a lot of unused potential. If you ever happen to find yourself 1980's and wander into an old arcade, give it a shot and see what you think. Then go find Christopher Lloyd because you don't know how you got there or how to get back to 2014.

Next up: Zork I