Bio Spheres

Copyright : Firebird | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Bio Spheres is one of the little known games that somehow manages to enter the CPC gaming world (with a little help from the emulation community) and get some attention from "mainstream" sites like this one. Developed by C.Hogg and J.D Rogers this game places you inside a spacecraft armed to the teath so that you can destroy wave after wave of nasty creatures by collecting bomb parts and shields and detonating the big one.

As you might have guessed we don?t have the full story line to this one.

Graphics

Although it?s not written by big developers like Codemasters or Ocean it?s a very nice looking game indeed, plenty of colours on offer, loads of various enemies that attack you in different ways, great colours throughout each of the levels and they actually change to keep your interests high and absolutely no serious glitches anywere in the game at all.

There are also some rather cool effects throughout the game, we particularly enjoyed the idea of showing you the entire playing area (like Boulderdash) before letting you play (this can also be skipped) and the superb level complete effect that pulls the screen through what looks like a time warp. Very well done indeed and much better than some other games from unknown developers.

Sound

Sound is also on top form, we get to hear some superb music at the start of each level and it?s not the same thing looped either, it appears the developers have written music for the start of each and every level and it certainly feels more rewarding as the music changes. Not only is the music on peak but the in-game sounds are just as great, there are plenty of explosions, various "pick up" sounds, warning sounds and much more.

This is a game that bigger software houses should learn by, show the CPC for what it?s capable of instead of limiting it.

Gameplay

The idea is simple, move your craft about each level and kill the alien space crafts or creatures while picking up bomb parts and shields for your ship. Once you?ve collected everything move over to the "B" symbol and hit the fire button to detonate, if all has gone well you?ll progress to the next level.

Graphics and music are great and do a lot to boost the enjoyability of the game but sadly it?s not without it?s problems, even though it?s only a small one. The control system is a little difficult at times when you try to manouvre around sharp corners, you?ll find yourself pressing down, left, down, left, down, left continuously until you hit the bottom. Other times your craft will move correctly and slide down the corner with no problems at all, while playing the game this only affected the first level but it could be repeated in later stages.

All in all Bio Spheres is a very entertaining shoot-em-up and one we highly recommend adding to your collections.