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S.W.I.V.

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

Amiga version

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.

by Martin Smith (61) on October 29, 2003

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