LAST RESORT
SNK - NEOGEO
Reviewed by Malc

These guys have a funny idea of what a 'last resort' is. Instead of pushing a big red button marked 'NUKE ALIENS', they send you (and possibly a mate) in a skinny spaceship to despatch the offending invaders. So you're the 'last resort', and I can't be bothered going to my games room to read the manual to tell you why. Lazy git:)

I've only shown you a few levels here, as this is only a quickshot after all, just to give you a little taste of it. I can assure you that there's a lot more, and they get damned hard later on, in fact I haven't yet finished the game on CD, and I've been playing it non-stop since I got it. I suppose you know an pretty obscure game by Irem called R-Type? You guessed right, its that sort of shooter!

When you first play the game you'll notice two outstanding things. Firstly, the amazing music on level 1, with sirens a-wailing and the heavy rocky beat driving you on. Secondly, you immediately feel at home with the weapons system, as its been nicked straight out of R-Type. With a few additions though, to keep Irem's lawyers at bay. You have a sort of floating orb, that follows your ship around, and can be fixed in a static position relative to your craft, which is great if you need some protection from certain angles. You can also shoot the orb off by holding down the fire button, which scoots off rapidly and bashes into any enemies in the way before returning. Gathering powerups augment the orb capability, in a fashion similar to R-Type 3 on the SNES, with some not-too-spectacular but still groovy lasers, missiles, and bombs. So that's the weapons then.

Graphicswise Last Resort is a bit of a beast. Beautifully coloured and detailed scenery and enemies, to be expected really with a machine featuring huge amounts of cart memory. Some of the bosses are extremely inventive, like the giant mech's knee (!), but others are predictable affairs. Beating these bosses can be tough because of the length of your ship, it's a bit like the E-Type of spaceships, and it's hard to dodge when there's not much room. During level 2 there's a suspiciously dodgy looking snake affair. Here it is... am I alone in thinking it's just a little bit phallic? (snigger:)



Score 9/10

Blasting through this city (which must have a really high electricity bill) this sub-boss pops out of the screen. A doddle to kill. Try and blow up the cars on the road, which is fun.

A huge Terminator with no legs accosts you at the end of level 1. Aren't the backgrounds lovely? Don't stare too long, as he's got a few presents for you.

This is where your protective orb comes in handy. It's literally raining bullets here, and you'll be shitting them if you don't have the orb.

Very 'In The Hunt' style boss, has a nasty flame attack, so don't get too close.

Level 3's submarine poses little threat, but watch out for the small sub-boss later with lasers who ALWAYS gets me every time!

Blast his kneecaps off, and he collapses to attack you with the top half. There's a horrible attack which spits blasts upwards later on, don't try and squeeze your long ship between them as there's just no room... zip over his head until they're gone. That's all for just now, I'll update this page when I have more time soon!!