Amiga

Uridium 2

Those who remember the original version will be glad to know that the feel is still there - only better. The scope has been widened, the action increased and the challenge doubled (at least). Forget all these other namby Defender clones, Uridium 2 is THE Defender variant... with knobs, bells, whistles, coloured flags, hooters and fluffy dice on.

This brings back happy memories of my old blasting days on the C64. Graphics are great and scrolling is smoother than a freshly bathed baby's bottom. Sound too is top notch and consists of groovy 64-esque tunes, superbly atmospheric spot FX and sampled speech. Yes, it's not an original game and it's been done numerous times before but there must be plenty of younger games who won't have experienced this piece of software history and, as they say, if it ain't broke then don't fix it.

Vaikka Uridium 2:sta ei löydykään mitään suurta vikaa, ei samanlaista pelihimoa kuin aikoinaan päässyt syntymään. Ehkäpä syy oli pilotin eikä pelin, ken tietää. Kuitenkin, Uridium 2 on siinä määrin uskollinen alkuperäiselle etteivät originaali-Uridiumista pitäneet voi pettyä.

Uridium was very close to getting a Gamer Gold, but just lost out because it lacks the ability to give long-term satisfaction. Great graphics, sound and playability though. Dedicated shoot'em-up fans will no doubt love it.

Uridium n'est pas un shoot'em up classique, ce qui en fait un jeu à part. Sa difficulté pourra en dérouter, quelques uns mais ne manquera pas, j'en suis sûr, d'en passionner d'autres.

Von aller Sentimentalität gelöst, bleibt ein hervorragendes Ballerspiel, das geradlinig und ohne viel aufgeblasenes Drumherum dem Ballerspielkern ins Schwarze trifft. Das bewährt einfache Spielprinzip kann gnadenlos überzeugen und sucht in dieser Umsetzung seinesgleichen auf dem Amiga. Auch technisch zeigt der Klassiker Zähne, neben den verschiedenen Konfigurationen, parallaxt sich Uridium 2 in obere Grafikregionen. Die durchgestylten Raumschiffplattformen, die in Braybrooks vertrauten Metalleffekten glänzen, lassen auch den abgehärtesten Grafikfetischisten selig dahinschmelzen. Musikalisch hält sich die Ballerorgie ebenfalls an das vertraute Vorbild. Die brillanten Titelmusik und einige hervorragenden Samples lassen das Blut des Spielers kochen. Sonntagsballerflieger sollten allerdings die Finger von Uridium 2 lassen, denn der ständig steigende Schwierigkeitsgrad fordert den ganzen Piloten.

Unfortunately Uridium 2 doesn't quite live up to my expectations. It definitely presents a stiff enough challenge to keep the most experienced blast'em-up fan happy, and it does manage to generate quite an atmosphere. If there was a bit more variety to the action this would be smart. But, erm, there isn't. Still well above average, but you'd be better off getting Turrican 3, shamefully underrated by Steve elsewhere in the issue,

At the end of the day Uridium 2's an excellent game, but falls just short of being a classic. The satisfaction gained by stripping a Dreadnought of its defences is incredible, and as they get larger and more complicated there's plenty of incentive to carry on. The dodgy reactor-core section pulls it down - why no passcodes or at least continues? It could do with a few. Apart from these niggles, though, a gas!

I've a feeling that Uridium 2 is going to be one of those games that polarises opinion. Some people are going to go wild over it, others, like myself, will end up feeling nothing more than antipathy. It's true that everything that glitters is not gold and this game reinforces that axiom. It is a polished game and it's obvious that a lot of thought has gone into the design. However, it's just too damn tough. But then again, maybe I'm getting old?