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FLASH GORDON by Fox Video Games
The basic story here is that Flash has had to drop in on Spider City to investigate the mysterious disappearance of allied spaement. Spider City is all underground. It's tunnels are filled with Hatching Pods, Disruptors and Patrol Ships. All are intent on keeping Flash from the timely accomplishment of his mission. The screen is split into upper and lower, the latter being a close-up view of the interiors of the city and its tunneled out passageways. The top of the screen gives a magnified view of the rescuing rocket ship. Two zig zag lines of lighted dots indicate the boundaries of the passageway you are traveling through at any given time. On the lower screen map of the city all the characters in this adventure are represented by vertical lines, horizontal lines and large crosses. Touch one of the Hatching Pods, then attempt to shoot all the Spider Warriors flying out. Shoot enough of them and you get a protective shield for a short period of time. Shoot all patrol ships too. The Disruptor is trouble from the start. Once you have entered one you will be barraged by flying debris that can destroy you. Just avoid contact with the Debris and escape as quickly as you can from the area. You will notice that the lost Spacement can be rescued by touching them with your ship. If you lose your head or your train of thought and blast away a defenseless spaceman, you also lose 1000 points. Free the city of spider villains and get to a part of the tunnel where there are no enemy objects and you will be allowed to advance to the next level. The action is fast-paced, the details so-so, and the sound effects better than average. The essential difficulty lies in being able to watch both levels of play at once on the split screen. The most successful way is to keep a constant eye on the map from the beginning since there are no other visual clues to your position given anywhere else. Not a bad movie-based game, except that people who drooled at the woman (forgot her name) won't get any action here, unfortunately. And the cheezy title track from the rock group Queen is unfortunately absent from this one as well.
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