Terraforming is a game that has the name of none other than thefamous SCI-FI graphic artist Syd Mead of Blade Runner, Alien 2, and of Star Trek fame tacked on to the title! I guess someoneout there woke up and realized that shooters actually get *better* whendesigned with someone that is no stranger to space and SCI-FI adventures!
Humans can no longer live on earth's surface due to abuse, so they are forced to go into space. New warp engines have been designed for the traveling of the galaxies, and a radical new technologies is discovered that wouldallow for the transformation of a planet to suit whatever conditions areneeded for comfortable living. Ships are sent out to find a planet muchlike earth, but unfortunately when the "one" is found, hostilealiens swarm the surface swarming with hatred and destruction.
When explorers reach the surface, they are attacked and killed by thesemenacing beasts. It is now the scientist's hopes that they establish contactwith the entity in charge of the planet and somehow get permission to liveon this planet along with these other aliens. Unfortunately the only waythey can get the message to the entity in charge is by a master pilot thatwill be able to ward off the aliens long enough to get to the planet's surfacesafely.
Pilot I , your mission is about to begin
The intro of the game is fairly un-important though serves as a good one time only intro with a common SydMead designed Mother ship along with a Gradius/W-Ring type jet also known asthe "Eternal Frontier" a master space/air craft set out into spaceready for some serious alien kicking.
Whoosh.. You're off! Pilot 1 to mothership, the game review sequence has begun. Proceeding to complete mission. Over.
Fast and furiously tearing through the air, Eternal Frontier arrivesat the planet's atmosphere ready for anything! This is your time to startblasting at all of the Syd Mead designed aliens that are ready to give itall up to remove your ship from the skies.
Throughout the game, there are a series of 4 items to enhance your ship.They will be all you need to get to get through every type of enemy youencounter. The first and most common item is the Power Up. It's job is toboost the size and power of the main shots your ship fires. The Power Uphas no other replacements. The second item is the Homing Vulcan (Blue).The homing vulcan makes an annoying sound when it fires several shots outthat quickly spin around and home in on any enemy on the screen (as wellas some non-enemies like the rocks). The third item is the Wide Shot (yellow).The Wide Shot effectively fires shots in all directions around your shipand destroys what it can. Although it can look quite impressive, it's actuallypretty weak. The fourth and final item is the Laser (red). The Laser shootsout 2 thin red laser beams that seem to go through just about everything.While it may not seem like much, it's extremely powerful and excellent forzapping rows of aliens at once as well as aliens that are hiding and firingat you on the other side of rocks and debris.
While Terraforming is not overly hard, it's not exactly easy at the sametime.; At times you may feel like setting it to the absolute hardestsetting (Truth) and other times you may find yourself wimping out and pickingthe easiest setting (Normal) .. which is of course recommended for anyone that may be human. Whoever may be playing will definitely needa quick eye to scan every inch of the screen at all times since enemiesseem to pop out of every single corner, plus since you cannot easily shootbehind the ship without certain weapon enhancements, the player will alsoneed to be able to quickly maneuver the ship around many of the differentenemies before it either crashes, or gets shot in the back (sorry, the alienshave no manners... and neither should you for that matter). In times of trouble when the screen becomes littered with enemies, one of the best stratagies I have found to work is to stop shooting. What happens is your ship will start to power up (a nice feature of the game), and as soon as the power meter is at full, fire away! The powerful shot often times clears away about half of the screen at once. The key to winning is to not have a lead thumb glued to the fire button. Relax the trigger finger and fire when needed.
The graphics are extremely realistic, if not in fact a bit too realisticat times. I took it upon myself to take a bit of time to study the aliensthat litter the screen, and they are extremely top notch with detail andcolor! Not only are they exquisitely thought out and designed, some of themalso have a glow where they would normally have eyes, and others stand andmove almost human like.. something that you would not want to see wakingyou up in the middle of the night. One thing I do enjoy though is how detailedthe bosses are when compared with other shooters. Although nothing willever top Lords of Thunder, There are always second-place awards given tothose who did a good job at trying!
The clouds tend to rush by as if you were looking out the window of an airplane,and most of the details in the many layered backgrounds leave nothing tobe desired. Often times the background will repeat itself a bit too muchbut I don't think it's something that will easily get on one's nerves sincethey have done a good job of covering it up or refreshing it with somethingnew.
Few Turbo games I've seen combine as many special effects as what I've seenin Terraforming. This title uses many standard effects such as scaling androtation, and not so standard effects such as a heat wave for some backgrounds.What I thought was very clever is the whiteout effect seen in level 2. Whenthe volcanoes erupt and shoot lava into the air, the screen quickly getsextremely bright until everything is white, and your ship and the enemiesare only black shadows. It can get quite annoying, but realism is alwaysan appreciated factor in games.. especially nice when added to a non-realconcept!
Another note: Terraforming was officially labeled a Super CD Duo game, but for those luckyenough to own an original Turbo Grafx CD, you can easily pop it in and playit exactly the same as it is on the Duo or any other Super CD-Rom2 System.
Right Stuff truly had the right stuff when they designed the music and soundsystem for Syd Mead's Terraforming. Not only does the music have an overallfresh and cleanly cut sound to it, the sound effects barely resemble thatof any other Turbo game, although it's nothing that can't be done on hu-card,it's just surprisingly new..
Unlike many shooters I've played in the past, the ship sounds are extremelyrealistic. Whenever the ship zooms into the screen to start the level off,the sound you hear is a sound of acceleration, then the ship steadies andthe music begins. Whenever powerful shots are fired, a loud hisss soundsoff while the shots crisscross into the distance obliterating everythingin their path.
I have read opinions in the past that have said the music often times doesn'tgo with the level. I beg to differ! If you are a Sci-Fi fan like me, youwill soon discover that Terraforming has all of the elements graphicallyand musically that to make up an entire SCI-FI classic! To give a few examples,during the intro, the music is powerful yet slow when your ship is introduced. Although I do admit they should have pepped it up quite a bit when the ship blasts off into space. In level 1, you are just descending into the planet's cloudy atmosphere justas it is throughout the game, the music adjusts accordingly. The music soundslike you are embarking into a new and not yet fully discovered planet. Justas you run into the boss and it prepares to test your skills, the musicsuddenly jumps into heavy metal and the shots start to fly. Level 2 is thedesperate struggle through hordes and hordes of enemies desperate to stopyou while volcanoes blow up while zooming past you. Likewise, the musicaccurately changes to a very fast paced beat while classic rock style guitarmusic plays. Level 3 is the flight through the beautiful canyons with water,rocks, craters, clouds, and life everywhere. As before, the music changesto an orchestra that weaves the graphics, ideas, and gameplay into one good experience.
A major production is consisted of hundreds, if not thousands of man hoursof time put into a project that flows just as well as your mind and thoughts.I do believe that when put up to the bar of all of the other classic Turboshooters, Terraforming has every element as well as many others that I'venever seen in other shooters, to make it a top notch title. So why do Ienjoy reviewing shooters? Because the Turbo sports some of the best shootersever noted in video game history, and Terraforming is definitely no exceptionin the least!
A major production from Right Stuff.
Revi
