| UniWar S | |
|
| |
| Developer | Irem |
| Publisher | Irem |
| System | Arcade |
| Release Date | 1980 |
| Modes | Single player Two players alternating |
| Media | ROM file |
Background[]
UniWar S was a bit of a unique bottom of the screen shooter when it hit the arcades due to being one of the earlier games to have several different stages/enemies to deal with.
Gameplay[]
Players controlled a Space Ship that fired at different overhead targets. Colliding with any of the enemies, their fire or Spears would cause the player to lose a Ship and the game would end when they had no more Ships left in reserve.
With the first stage, players are engaged in space combat, facing a horde of Super Mosquitos[1] that appeared in formation overhead. Just like with Galaxian, one or more Mosquitos would leave the formation and dive downwards towards the player’s Ship while dropping bombs. If the player did not shoot, nor allow a Mosquito to ram their Ship, then the Mosquito would reappear at the top of the screen, rejoining the formation.
If the player was able to clear out all Mosquitos, their ship would WARP and start into the ground combat rounds from there, first facing several Hovering Attackers that materialized in the center of the screen and bobbed from side to side. If the player did not shoot one after several seconds, it would dip closer to the player’s Ship, quickly spin around and then dive to a side while firing. If the player was unable to shoot it at that stage, then the Attacker would re-materialize back at the center of the screen again.
Clearing all Attackers would advance the player to face a group of Demon Flies, which slowly floated around, although if several seconds went by without the player destroying one, it could drop down a Spy Alien; shooting a Fly would also cause a Spy to drop down. If the player was unable to shoot a Spy, it would appear below their Ship and start deploying an electronic Spear, which, if it made contact with the player’s Ship, it would be destroyed.
Finally, if the player was able to pass the set of Flies, they would face Rolling Fires, which could only be destroyed with a shot in between segments that made up a Fire. Behavior in regards to dropping Spies was the same as on the previous wave. If the player was able to get past this area, they would start over on the next pattern of Super Mosquitos, but at an advanced degree of difficulty.
Also, during the last two rounds, a lone Killing King appeared during each wave, which, if the player was able to destroy it, would remove all onscreen Spies.
Controls[]
- Move Space Ship–joystick (left/right only)
- Fire–fire button
Scoring[]
- Super Mosquito–20 points each
- Hovering Attacker–30 points
- Demon Fly–40 points
- Rolling Fire–50 points
- Spy Alien–100 points
- Killing King–“BIG” points (random)
- Extra ship–4000, 5000, or 7000 points depending on setting of machine
Links[]
- International Arcade Museum page entry for pictures, flier and manual scans
- Click on the Tabber below for a review.
Review[]
Oh, so THAT’S what this weird game was called when I used to play it at a convenience store at the end of the block over from my parents’ house when I was a kid! I never could remember what in tarnation its name was until user kernzy at highscore.com, years later, put up a video for his high score entry of the game. That was the only place I ever saw and played this game at, so it wasn’t a big hit, along with never getting ported anywhere (to the best of my knowledge).
The game starts off decently at least with its Galaxian rip-off stage, then from there the Attackers are ok to deal with. Unfortunately once you face the Flies, the game doesn’t get any better, as they remind me of those butterfly-like things from Moon Cresta, and with them dropping down Spies, those guys are annoying, then it gets worse (and less fun) with the Rolling Fires appearing after that, as they can be hard to destroy.
At least this game was pretty early in coming up with different enemies to have to deal with, but it just wasn’t really that fun, as it wouldn’t be long with games with the same concepts (different stages/enemies) blew it away, such as with Tron (ok, not a bottom shooter, but it comes to mind) and especially Gorf. Those games were way better and fun than this, although this one was first.
6/10 (review by Darrylb500)
References[]
- ↑ From the game manual.
This game was featured from November - December, 2015.
