Alien Highway

Copyright : Vortex Software | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

History recalls the epic ?Highway Encounter.? The attempted domination of Earth by the dreaded Alien aggressor was foiled by the power of the Vortons.

Your mission is to strike at the industrial heart of the Alien Empire, before they remass with even greater force. As controller of the Vorton you must manoeuvre the Terratron to the end of the ?Alien Highway.? It is vital the Terratron be energized en route by contact with seven regeneration stations. Only by achieving this can you proceed through the barrier guarding the Industrial Complex.

There, the Terratron will reveal it?s awesome power.

Graphics

As you would expect from such a quick sequel, Alien Highway is very similar to its predecessor in terms of graphical design and style.

There are some important differences though. Gone are the colourful if undefined scenery of Highway Encounter, replaced with random blocks of colour and generous use of black space.

Some more aliens have been added to the mix too and these blend in well with the existing breeds.

Whilst similar to the original, Alien Highway has a more alien look to it that again fits in with the plot well. Sadly though, the overall look is not quite as endearing as Encounter.

Sound

As with Encounter, Alien Highway suffers from some pretty poor sound effects that really should have been worked on in between releases.

Gameplay

More of a continuation than a direct sequel, Alien Highway plays similarly enough to Encounter to be familiar to veterans of the first game but with enough variances to still provide a new challenge. The multiple lives, single hit format has been replaced with one craft, which must push the weapon on its own through the zones. This, of course means itâ??s possible to take a few hits and that slight errors are not punished as harshly.

Energy can now be topped up while you try to charge the weapon, which will prompt many a crazy lunge up the playing area frantically searching for a restore point before youâ??re hit by another kamikaze alien.

The other major change to the gameplay is the control of your robot. Whereas before he was nimble and easy to manoeuvre, he now canâ??t stop as suddenly as he did before meaning that your timing has to be spot on to avoid a nasty end.

Add to this electrified walls and more new alien lifeforms and there are enough new features to justify Alien Highwayâ??s existence.

The difficulty level is higher again than Highway Encounter (which was already very tough) and this will put a lot of people off the game before they give it the chance to get into it.

Although good, Alien Highway isnâ??t quite as complete a package as Highway Encounter but is still recommended if you really liked the original.