When the planet Pan was suddenly and violently attacked by
unknown alien forces its defences quickly fell. As the military force of the
planet fall in battle, most of the survivors fled but one man chose to remain.
He is Max Maverick, captain of the army and the last hope of the planet.
Suiting up in battle armour the lone warrior sets out to drive away the alien
armada.
OK so the one man against the entire alien invasion force
scenario is what the "snow" level is to the platform game, every title
in the genre has it, but when it's this
good who cares? You take control of Max in a 3D isometric shooter, a rarity on
the NES, and have to blast your way through seven challenging levels. Before
you even think of taking on this game be warned this is one tough cartridge.
Aliens swarm at you from all angles and bullets fly across the screen in
slowdown inducing quantities. Besides your power armour you have some other
means of transport depending on the level as well. Water levels have you riding
a hovercraft while some of the outdoor levels give you a hover bike. Max has
only two ways of firing. Focused fire shoots a straight beam ahead of you,
which can be upgraded to more powerful levels as well as also shooting out
behind you. Wide fire instead fires a lot of beams in a spread direction but is
weaker, although it can also be upgraded to shoot in more directions. Now and
then you'll find a shield if you're lucky which can make life a little bit easier.
There is a wide assortment of enemies but the highlight is
the bosses. These guys are very tough and take a ton of hits to go down. As
usual for the genre they each have a pattern that has to be figured out before
you stand any real chance of beating them. A good thing is that if you die
after killing the boss it still counts as a victory and you progress to the
next level. I have to admit few battles ended with me dying almost simultaneously
with the boss. I still have nightmares about that level four boss battle on the
hover bike.
The graphics in Isolated Warrior is pretty good considering
the sheer amount of things going on at all times and the fact that there is so
much variety in the enemies. The colours might not be that impressive but there
is a fair amount of detail in the surroundings and you can spot the unique
touches like flying over a burning city that gives the game a unique
perspective.
The sound is OK with the best feature an alarm sound that
goes off each time you get hit. Believe me you'll be concentrating so hard on
dodging bullets and enemies that you'll hardly notice it if it wasn't for the
audio warning. You'll be hard pressed to remember the music though as you be so
engrossed in the game. The game has a much needed password option for each of
the seven levels, but even with it you'll be playing for a while before
mastering the game. Novice players might have some trouble with the fixed
difficulty setting but if you're a fan of the shooter genre this is without a
doubt a classic and a good example of what the NES is capable of.
[9]
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