T-Zer0 (CD)

T-Zero is an exclusive shootemup designed for high end Amiga configurations. (68030+/8mb ram/HD/CD/AGA) The game included CD Soundtracks for music allowing the Amiga to play the SFX and large movie files for the intro and level interlude sections. The game opens on a fullscreen and scrolls both vertically and horizontally for a large play area allowing for lots of enemies and projectiles on screen. There are also little background animations and some transparency effects for your ship and weapons. The game also ships with a level editor to give it some longevity. It aims to be the best shoot em up on the Amiga but .. is it.

You can choose between easy or hard difficulty but you only get to play the first two worlds. The game has two modes of play. Story mode which contains five worlds each with four levels. The second level is either route A or B depending on how many gems you have collected. Four gems are needed to access Route B. Route A is the easier of the two but with not as many bonuses to collect. You are tasked with finding five unique coloured gems in each world in order to unlock a large Diamond at the end of the exit (third) stage. You need to get all five large diamonds in order to unlock world five exit. This mode also features three bonus secret levels accessed at the end of worlds two, three and four. To access the levels you need to collect at least ninety five percent of the gold stars in those worlds and collect the hand item at the end of the level. The reward for completing all three is access tro the Secret Ship which is the best ship in the game.

Then there is arcade mode which just plays through four straight levels purely for score and no special requirements. You can still collect bonus items to boost your score. The reward for completing this mode is a list of the games cheat codes as well as hints about the secret bonus levels.

At the start of the game you can choose between three ships, each with a different weapon loadout and handling characteristics. You can also select the type of backing track and graphic style to accompany you. (Arcade or High Tech). Throughout each level there will be many bonuses to collect as well as much needed weapon upgrades. Note you can only have one primary weapon so collect the same type of weapon held to power it up. There are also short term secondary weapons to collect as well as a limited number of Nuclear blasts.

The longplay firstly goes through the Story mode, collecting all gem colours to collect the large diamonds. The secret levels are played in worlds 2,3 and 4. The Secret ship is unlocked anf the final encounter is player which requires all diamonds collected. Then I go into Arcade mode with arcade music (doesnt sound like any arcade soundtrack I've ever heard) using the newly unlocked ultimate craft. Completing this shows the cheats. To finish the longplay I go into the story mode again with arcade gfx set and music on easy mainly to show the alternate gfx set and route A and it ends after world 3 entrance.

Overall, it is hard to have and fun with this game. Not because it is hard but because it's difficult from bad design, like the developers had only played Project-X and R-Type. Whilst you can set the player ships inertia, they still move too fast compared to the enemy so a slight nudge can send you flying into a wall or enemy projectile and not helped by the slow level scrolling. The play area is large and the game makes full use of this by filling it with enemy waves and spreading enemy fire everywhere. Maybe it's a skill issue but even with upgraded weapons, your craft feels very underpowered and never god like. Rocks can be the most annoying enemy. The real killer is the sudden speed up when you clean the screen of enemies, thrusting you into a wall as you try to clean up any bonus items.

The game overdoes it with it's initial presentation with its slideshow intro and short level transition movies but they does nothing at the end when youve beaten it. There isn't even a credit roll. The levels are long and not much variation between them. The game looks and sounds great with out having some annoying weapons fire sound. But that's about as much praise I have for the game. The longplay might look odd the way it's played with heavy save state abuse but the game doesnt feel like you're meant to attack waves in any particular way as stray enemy weapons fire means you are always on the move.

00:00:00 Intro
00:05:18 Menu / Ship Selection
00:08:50 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World1 Entrance
00:14:26 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 1 Route B
00:21:00 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 1 Exit
00:22:23 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 2 Entrance
00:28:54 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 2 Route B
00:36:00 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 2 Secret Level 1
00:37:10 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 2 Exit
00:39:53 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 3 Entrance
00:45:50 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 3 Route B
00:52:16 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 3 Secret level 2
00:53:42 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 3 Exit
00:55:57 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 4 Entrance
01:00:57 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 4 Route B
01:06:49 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 4 Secret level 3
01:08:19 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 4 Exit
01:10:56 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 5 Entrance
01:19:24 Story Mode (Hard / HighTech) World 5 Exit
01:26:12 Title Screen (Full Soundtrack)
01:29:45 Arcade Mode (Hard) World 1
01:36:23 Arcade Mode (Hard) World 2
01:43:37 Arcade Mode (Hard) World 3
01:47:58 Arcade Mode (Hard) World 4
01:54:35 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 1 Entrance
02:00:32 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 1 Route A
02:06:31 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 1 Exit
02:07:53 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 2 Entrance
02:14:49 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 2 Route A
02:22:19 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 2 Secret Level 1
02:23:26 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 2 Exit
02:26:50 Story Mode (EASY / Arcade) World 3 Entrance