Granada X

Reviewed by Roger Post

Granada X, the story about a little tank with a big heart.....Now if ever there was a game where the only purpose is to blow up stuff up, this is it. The Granada X is a new weapon that some third world country has developed, a quick little mobile tank with lots of firepower. Your mission is to eliminate all the enemy targets on each level, which are represented on the radar as red dots. Each level has a different setting and theme, but the task at hand is to terminate those pesky red dots with extreme prejudice.

Gx is a free roaming shooter, meaning the tank can go anywhereon the screen and explore a sonsiderably sized playing field. The controls are well set too, with a rapid fire machine gun, a powerful but slow barrel blast, and a third button used to hold the tank into position so that you can move one way and fire another. Normally the barrel faces the way you are moving, but holding the lock button down puts an end to that. This free roaming was a nice break from strictly traditional shmups. There are also little square options to follow you around, circle spreadshots that attach to the barrel, and spiral powerups which blow up the entire screen when shot.

The best part of Gx is the variety of the levels (as seen in the review). Each layout gives a fresh new spin on "find the enemy and destroy". The action is fast paced, the game is pretty challenging (you can set your player stock to six, and get three continues), and for me had a lot of replay value. This game is similar to Metal Sotker for the PC Engine, so fans of this style of game should check it out.

Thanks Roger for the low-down on this original shooter! This kind of games usually are nice. I used to have a game on my Amiga called...errrr.... damn, I can't remember the name, but it was very very similar to this one, and very good too. Maybe you can say this is like a Bosconian, because of the free-roaming movement, but a Bosconian with its feet firmly on the ground =) - Akira