Genesis - Bioship Paladin Review

Bio-ship paladin is a side-scrolling shooter game where you can play with one or two players.

Gameplay: 7/10

The bio-ship paladin is equipped with lasers which can charge up to emit a powerful beam. However, aside from that there is a secondary firing mode where you can actually fire orange bullets which explode when they reach an area but pass through enemies otherwise. You can set the pad with the C button so that the B button switches modes where the directions control the targeting for the secondary firing and your fire button fires the bullets or you can set it so when your B button is held down it switches to secondary fire.. Its actually more powerful than your basic laser attack and can destroy enemy bullets but of course, you can't move when you're controlling that.

Your ship doesn't actually get blown up in one hit but has a life bar as well as life and continues so your ship can withstand a number of hits. You can also pick up power-ups to increase your speed, increase your life and have your orange bullets go on automatic attack. There are also golden balls which provide some additional fire power but they almost always get blown up by enemies. The best part is the two-player mode. You can have two seperate bio-ships or you can have one piloting and controlling the lasers while the other controls the secondary fire.

There is one major problem with the game, and that is the large size of the bio-ship paladin. Each time it gets life it increases in size which is unfortunate since that means it gets increasingly harder to pilot it. The lack of power-ups also hurts the game as well and frankly sometimes I think your ship isn't powerful enough.

Graphics: 3.5/5

The graphics are quite good for its time although the isn't really much variety in the enemies. The enemy boss ships are also pretty interesting if old-fashioned.

Sound and Music: 2.5/5

Sound is mediocre and the music barely passable. Not much to say here.

Game design: 3.5/5

There are ten levels to the game and each is designed differently. There are enough enemies and obstacles to keep you occupied although there aren't that many different varieties. The enemy bosses also have a great deal of parts and attachments so its fun trying to target the various turrets while dodging bullets although the problem of huge size does make it very difficult at times. However, because of all the turrets I usually end up attacking them before they fully appear on screen when they haven't started firing. Why make it so hard that I have to cheat like that? All in all not great but not too bad however the second half of the game repeats the bosses from the first half which is a shame. Seeing the same bosses again is just boring.

Longevity: 3.5/5

The game is fairly entertaining. I think the two-player mode is what will keep you coming back to the game anyway. Aside from that however, there really isn't much else going for it.

For: Two modes of fire, fun in two-player.

Against: Repeated bosses, ship too large, hard to use secondary fire sometimes

Genre: Action

Produced by: UPL

Year: 1992

Platform: Sega Genesis/Megadrive

Runs on: Gens

Scoring Summary

Gameplay: 7/10

Graphics: 3.5/5

Sound and Music: 2.5/5

Game design: 3.5/5

Longevity: 3.5/5

Total: 20/30

Rating:

67%

-Reviewed by Barnabas