S.W.I.V.

aka: SilkWorm In Vertical, Silkworm IV, Special Weapons Interdictions Vehicles
Moby ID: 7635
Amiga Specs

Description official description

S.W.I.V. is a vertical scrolling shooter and an unofficial follow-up to Sales Curve's conversion of the side scroller Tecmo arcade game Silkworm.

One player controls a helicopter and the other a jeep, with the jeep transforming into a boat when the vehicles pass over water. As well as a host of blaster fodder the game also includes a mid-level enemy inspired by the "Goose" enemy from the earlier title Silkworm. Pieces of this enemy would fly onto the screen and assemble into one vehicle before commencing to fire at the players' vehicles. When destroyed the "goose" would drop power-ups.

Spellings

  • SWIV - Alternate spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (Amiga version)

8 People

Published by
  • The Sales Curve Ltd on the Storm label
Programmed by
  • Random Access
Game Designed by
Music Composed by
Programming
Graphics
Package Design by
  • Artistix
Instructions by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 32 ratings with 1 reviews)

Faultless arcade game, near-faultless conversion.

The Good
Wave after wave of enemy came forth, and it was down to your skill as to whether you shot them, avoided them, or got sent to heaven. The attack waves were designed in a brilliant way so as to be beatable but not easy.

The lack of power-ups was a blessing in disguise, as it ensured that losing a life at the wrong moment didn't destroy your game, and demonstrated that it wasn't just through making the enemies unfairly tough that the game derived its challenge..

Unlike Silkworm, the two player game gave both players a fighting chance, and made for a high level of co-operation.

There were no breaks in play, due to the single-level design, and the Dynamic Loading System brilliantly recreated this, with scarcely-noticable loading sounds (impressive considering how noisy the Amiga's disk drive sometimes was) and no pauses during play

The Bad
You could say the graphics were a little unexciting, and they certainly lacked variety. The game's failure to work with later Amigas was a disaster

The Bottom Line
The game was reputedly called SWIV because the developers felt that it was 4 times as good as the original Silkworm. Like its predecessor it was an overhead-view shooter featuring a helicopter and a jeep. Scrolling vertically, you had both moving and mounted targets to take on, based on land, air and sea. It was all made as one long level, with larger tougher enemies at regular intervals.

Amiga · by Martin Smith (61) · 2003

Trivia

"Cameos"

S.W.I.V. was one of the first Amiga games that pinched Xevious idea of having the whole gameworld as a single continuous level. It can be clearly recognised with a little tribute section early in the game featuring Xevious distinctive landscape style populated by three of its trademark enemies: the Toroid fighter, Domogram ground tank and Bacura spinning shields.

Awards

  • Amiga Power
    • May 1991 (Issue #00) - #27 in the "All Time Top 100 Amiga Games"
  • Commodore Format
    • July 1993 (Issue 34) - Modern Classics: Shoot-'em-ups

Analytics

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 7635
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Dan Marchant.

MSX added by robMSX. Atari ST, Commodore 64 added by Martin Smith. Acorn 32-bit, Amstrad CPC added by Kabushi. ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith.

Additional contributors: Martin Smith, Игги Друге, Garcia, mailmanppa, Jo ST, FatherJack.

Game added December 19, 2002. Last modified June 26, 2023.