Stellar 7

The Good
Plenty of action, lots of enemies that requires different tactics, each boss is different, updated from B&W wireframe to glorious VGA colors...

The Bad
Virtually IDENTICAL to the classic version, except the boss, power-up, and VGA color/shading. Power-ups too powerful and ruin the balance of the game

The Bottom Line
Stellar 7 was a remake of a Battlezone (the Atari arcade game) clone back in the Apple II days. You drive the Raven, the most powerful combat tank Earth has produced, but you are alone against Gir Draxon's army. Along the way you'll face hovercrafts, several types of tanks, flyers, seeking drones, stationary cannons, obstacles, and more. Each system under Draxon's control (level) also is protected by a "guardian" (end boss). You must defeat each one to continue. Your tank is protected by shields (limited recharge available!) and a cloaking device (heavy energy use!). By destroying certain enemies you can find power-ups which will add capability to your tank, like supercannon, superjump, superthruster, etc.

The game is basically in-cockpit shoot-them-all. Your tank doesn't manuever THAT well, but it can turn/forward/backward. The gameworld is actually not that big but it "wraps" around so it feels infinite. This version is much prettier than the original B&W version, though the gameplay is virtually identical.

The game is too easy with the available powerups, as defeating the boss are very simple with them (except those that move around a lot).

All in all, Stellar 7 is a good game that illustrated the power of VGA graphics, but stay away from the powerups, as they tend to ruin the game.

The Good

• There's plenty of action in this game. You battle against a nice variety of enemies; there are flying enemies and land-based enemies, there are tanks equipped with a cloaking device, tanks armed with an electric force field that drains your energy when you touch them, spider-tanks that drop cobwebs in which you can get stuck etc. Moreover each of the seven levels/planets ends with a boss battle.
• At first I thought the game was somewhat difficult (the first few days I played the game I didn't get very far, only up to level 3 or something). But this is one of those games where you need to learn "the trick" (what it takes to advance) to beat a level. For example, which power-up to use against which boss. Find out what to do when, I liked that.
• Stellar 7 has good production values. The game (engine) runs smooth, it's graphics mode is VGA and there's Adlib/Soundblaster support. The graphics of Stellar 7 are convincing, they're a combination of 2D art (the storyboards starring Gir Daxon are wonderful) and 3D models (my favorite is the manta, just look how it flaps its wings). The audio is not bad, but also not very interesting.

**The Bad**

• The usefulness of some of the power-ups is questionable. The EEL-shield, the landmines and the supercannon are very helpful for beating certain bosses and the Cat's Eye (lets you see cloaked enemies) is fun too, but I don't think I ever had to use the booster- or jump power-ups. And when you use the Inviso Cloak your entire field of vision turns red, which makes it hard to see incoming laser fire.
• Sometimes it took me quite a while to shoot down some of these flying enemies. They're a lot faster than your tank and since you can't move the barrel of your cannon up & down they're often out of reach. This is a minor complaint, however.

**The Bottom Line**
A good action game with shoot 'em all gameplay - Battlezone style. Completely linear, without any customization or branching, but well executed.

The Good
Back when I first played this game I was a fan of games in which you had to work your way through different levels to win the game and this game was one of those games. It had seven levels each named after a star that actually exists in our own galaxy (except Sol). I also liked the variety of enemies that you had to fight against. From what I can remember there were both ground units and air units with names like the sandsledge, the seeker, the hovercraft, the assault tank and the peculiar "warplinks" (what a name) that would transport you to the next level when you hit them. There was also a briefing which gave details about each of the enemies which contained an image of the enemy along with a voice over reading out the details.

The Bad
The music in the game was incredibly repetitive. Listen to the music on the first level and you will see what I mean.

The Bottom Line
All in all Stellar 7 was an outstanding action game. There were numerous enemies each with their own strength and abilities (the hovercraft could only operate on planets with an atmosphere) and a briefing which contained information about each of the enemies.

The Good
Battlezone style game updated for VGA and the 90's. The intro cinamatics draw you right in.

The Bad
Runs too fast on my pentium.

The Bottom Line
Battlezone style taken to the max. Great cut scenes. Great old VGA graphics.