Gain Ground

THE BAD:
Not much appeal
Feels very samey

SUMMARY:
This game is played from a top-down perspective and has you travelling through different worlds consisting of 10 maps and a boss battle every tenth map. It’s a game for one or two players, probably more fun with 2 players. On every map there will be a certain number of enemies to kill and this total is depicted as a number on screen, not all of the enemies will start off on most maps though, some will sneak on as ambushes. If you kill all of them then you’ll win the level. But there is also an exit area where you can get your current character out of the map and bring in a new one, this is also important when you are recruiting new characters as if you finish the level with a recruit still on the map, you won’t get him. If your character is hit then they’ll turn into a mini version and become a recruit that you can save by getting to the exit. If you get all characters to the exit then you’ll also win the map but later on when you get more characters, time will prevent you from doing this.

You start off with only 3 characters initially, but as the game progresses you’ll get the chance to have other fighters join you with different abilities. Each character has two different attacks, their regular one which can be fired in any direction and a special one. This attack may go in only one direction, some directions or all directions. The way to tell is the white arrows around the picture of your character at the side of the screen. Whichever white arrows are lit up are the directions your special attack can go. There are over a dozen characters with a varying range of attacks from laser blasts to multi-missile launchers. Some will be able to get over fences and walls but others will not so when you choose your character at the start of the map, choose carefully. In that sense the game could be considered a strategy game of sorts because on early maps you can pick anyone and just shoot away but on later maps there will be enemies in positions much harder to reach and will require you to use some of the characters you’ve picked up along the way. The selection of characters and attacks makes for some great combinations in two player because while one of you are killing the people close to you, the other can use a different character and hit the ones on the other end of the map.

The main downside to this game for me was that it became old very quickly. The maps you play on simply aren’t diverse enough to justify having to battle through as many levels as there are and by the time I was onto the 4th set of maps I had a recurring feeling of déjà vu. Also the game could be considered pretty easy and with a second player it will feel very short even for a Mega Drive/Genesis game. It’s not a game I’d particularly recommend unless you can find it cheaply because it isn’t one that you’ll have the urge to play too many times.