IO Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]

Developed by Kinetic Design and published by Firebird in 1988. IO (Into Oblivion) is another horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up for the C64 and also happens to be another game that I never got to play back in the day. I've no idea what the story is to the game, but this hardly matters. All you need to know is that the game looks great and is extremely tough! IIt's all too easy to start the game and die on the first wave of enemy ships if you position yourself badly. As with many other games in the genre, IO punishes you with instant death if you collide with the scenery, although it is quite lenient in how far it allows you to fly near the top and bottom of the screen without dying. The power-up system in the game is typical of the genre. Green smart bombs can be located throughout the level, which will kill all enemies on screen if you collect it. However, if you shoot the smart bomb 4 times it will transform into a power-up for your ship's main weapon. In fact, it actually spawns a side-shot satellite that floats alongside your ship and adds extra fire-power; you can collect a maximum of 2 satellite and this makes the game considerably easier. Once you have collected a side-shot, any enemy bullet that hits your ship will destroy a side-shot instead of killing you outright. Once both satellites are destroyed then the next bullet will kill you. It's a pretty novel feature as most shoot 'em ups simply killed you outright, so this does help in keeping the difficulty manageable. Bob Stevenson produced some brilliant graphics for the game and Doug Hare did a sterling job on the coding front. The highlight of the game is the fantastic art work created for the boss fights; these look bigger and more menacing than most contemporary shooters. David Whittaker created a couple of short tunes that bookend the game. They're good but not exceptional; some excellent in-game SID tunes would have really made the game great. The only other shortcoming the game has is the length at a measly 4 levels. Considering that this cost £15 on release, Armalyte puts it to shame in terms of content. All things considered, this was a pretty good shooter that would pave the way for Armalyte and other games in the genre. #retrogaming