Knife Edge: Nose Gunner

Impressive graphics and an unusual game design highlight Kemco's explosive space shooter, which takes action buffs to Mars for a high-speed game of cat-and-mouse through six stages with multiple branches.

The game opens with a riveting cinematic sequence worthy of the silver screen. Colonists on Mars are under alien assault, and you're the gunner on a crack team sent from Earth to pacify the troublemakers. As soon as your experimental fighter gets shuttled down to the Red Planet's surface, you find yourself in the heat of a red-hot battle.

Knife Edge is a first person perspective arcade rail shooter, which means that the game guides your movement through the environments. This restricts flight control and eliminates exploration, although you can evade enemy fire by juking left, right, up and down. The main action consists of targeting and blasting enemy craft with your rapid-fire Vulcan gun, Homing Missiles, Plasma Torpedoes, Lasers, Flak gun and shock wave-inducing Nukes.

The enemies come flooding out of every nook and cranny in the alien landscape, and each level holds a creative boss waiting to put an end to your mission. The action takes place on Mars' parched surface, in an abandoned colony that looks like something out of Blade Runner, deep beneath the Red Planet and on a giant asteroid. Players who have heard of those legendary Martian canals will be surprised to learn that future colonists have managed to fill them with water!

Up to four players can take on the aliens at once, in either Team or Battle mode. There is no need for a split screen view, because all four cursors can appear on the screen at once. Multiplayer action takes players through the same six levels as the one player game. Team Mode is a cooperative assault against the aliens, and Battle Mode is identical to Team Mode, but the game tallies and ranks each player's number of kills.

The unusual game design doesn't allow you to save. However, you do have unlimited continues. If you're defeated, you must restart from the beginning of the level.

The depth of a shooting game with only six levels is questionable, but those six levels are jam-packed with swarming enemies waiting to be annihilated. As the game guides you through alien worlds, the well-textured environments and flashy special effects will provide you with plenty of eye candy. Knife Edge: Nose Gunner won't challenge your puzzle solving abilities, but it delivers alien-blasting action that will have your finger squeezing the trigger button almost constantly.

Source:

www.nintendo.com

The only thing standing between you and the alien slime that's controlling the weapons, vehicles, and machinery on Mars is the experimental fighter aircraft,

KNIFE EDGE

You've been chosen as NOSE GUNNER

You better hope that HOMING MISSILES, VULCAN CANONS, PLASMA TORPEDOES, and the other special weapons in your artillery are enough.

You don't get to fly the craft so I hope you TRUST your pilot.

WE'RE COUNTING ON YOU!

(Comic transcription)

KNIFE EDGE

NOSE GUNNER

BATTLE FOR MARS

At the end of the 21st century, colonists from Earth changed Mars from a barren planet into an livable one.

Within 50 years, trees began to cover the land... and the melting polar ice caps formed lakes and oceans.

But laying dormant in the southern ice cap, was a menacing alien lifeform... and when it was awakened... it seized control of the machinery and vehicles, destroying the colonies.

(KA-BOOM! CRASH TPOW ZAP!)

The last report received from Mars was a distress call...

"May Day!

May Day!

It's attacking!

SEND HELP..."

Meanwhile, on Mars' moon, Phobos...

An elite squadron testing the new fighter aircraft, Knife Edge, was called to action.

"Let's move it!"

(End comic transcription)

Your mission: To rescue any and all survivors

To secure landing sites for military aircraft

To seek and destroy the vile alien protoplasm

But will even the awesome fighting power of Knife Edge be enough to defeat the insidious invaders?

WEAPONS TRAINING

As gunner, you will learn to use the various special weapons designed for Knife Edge. While you will have the ability to dodge enemy fire, you are not piloting the craft, so it is not necessary to learn flight tactics. A weapons chart has been provided for you below.

Learn them. Know them.

Weapons

Vulcan Weapons | continuous firing capabilities

Homing Missiles | can fire up to four missiles at once

Special Bombs | destroys all enemies on screen

Plasma Torpedoes | globes of pulsating energy

Nukes | low yield thermonuclear projectiles

Flaks | shotgun blast-like weapons

Lasers | concentrated shots of energy

They are the key to your survival. Utilize the auto-aim device for accuracy and visibility in poor combat conditions.

Good luck, Lieutenant. The fate of the Martian colonies is in your hands!

Source:

Nintendo Power #112, September 1998