( Important Note: You must read the 'Angel Fish' preview. It containts vital information regarding Firehammer for the Gizmondo)
Fathammer have realised the great potential that the Gizmondo handheld offers and so have joined up forces with the new kid on the block. Having an extensive background of gaming, the company brings with it an extensive knowledge of the market and also the ancient old techniques and recipes to make sure that any game will be a sure winner. Their first title that they will be developing for the Gizmondo is called “Firehammer” and is a scrolling space blaster to rock you out of this world!
The retro alien shooter has all of the classic elements to please the market and bring to you an unreal arcade style game; a vertical scrolling shoot’em up! There are many things that can be done, it is not just a simple ‘lets watch the scenery go by’ type of game. Among a few, you can rotate, turn and strafe all shown from a birds-eye view as the stunning levels scroll down at a fixed pace.
Using the fire power available to you---a standard blaster and special weapons to gain along the way---you have to venture your way through ten levels and fight off the alien invasion that threatens the existence of mankind. There are many different alien ships and aliens to destroy and blast away; they become harder to kill as you progress further into the game. When you kill them, gold rings will trail down the screen from their scattered remains. If you collect these, continually flying into them without missing one as they fall down from the starry sky, then it will boost your points. Collecting them will times the points gained from the enemy by eight with each one you grab.
At the end of each of the sci-fi levels, you will be faced by a boss. These ships are usually huge hulking machines that take up near enough all of the width of the screen. By shooting them, filling them with as much lead as possible (or whatever material it is they use to produce the ships bullets) they will finally explode and you will have defeated them, allowing you to carry on to the next level. It is not just a simple case of blast them out of the sky and then that’s it, oh no! When you use your skill to kill one of the bosses, you are then given weapon power-ups. These usually are extra weapons added to your ship such as spray shot, laser shots or even huge explosions that will wipe off the entire screen of enemies.
Although it does not push the Gizmondo to its limit graphically, the game still looks to be polished out rather well. With the parallax layered graphics, it works with a fluent motion, with a good frame rate and pulls of the designs of your ship, the aliens and their ships and the creative levels really well, to come together as one nice look arcade blaster. The designs overall are bold, with a good colour scheme to match with the time period it is working towards, giving it that futuristic atmosphere of a inter-galactic space battlefield!
The soundtrack of the game seems to be very much a heavy metal type of theme, With tracks that sound a lot like some of the songs from prodigy and other bands of the same type (all being around the same time in the nineties) it works well the with pace of the game and blast of your guns. It is very much similar to that of the tracks heard on other scrolling shoot’em ups such as some of the titles in the R-Type series.
As far as sound effects go, it could be a lot better by the sounds of it. Comments have been made about it being very weak; the blast of the guns and lasers are pathetic sounds and could very much be geared up with a higher impact to work together with the rest of the game’s high explosive overall look. Only the explosions and super moves, gained by defeating the bosses, have more force.
Once again, the Finnish company seem to have put together another solid title. It is not yet completely finished for the Gizmondo platform and may well be more advanced and changed by the time of its release but it follows in the suit of all other great arcade titles. Being a simple and game to get into as soon as you pick it up, Firehammer looks to be a sturdy title to support the Gizmondo’s release and appeal to the market as a great on-the-go game for the moments when you just feel like blowing some alien ass!
TR
