Snes - Big Sky Troopers Review

Big Sky Troopers is a science fiction game where you play either a boy or girl recruited to try and defeat the evil slugs who are invading the galaxy. It's a game which looks like its for kids rather than adults, however its one of the few games to have the term 'quantum'. In order to stop the slugs you'll have to repair and liberate the four quantum machines of the universe, otherwise the universe will be destroyed.

Gameplay: 7/10

After selecting to be a boy or girl, the game starts off with you watching television and being interrupted by the recruiting officer who runs a series of tests on you before making you a 21-star general. You're than whisked off onto the Dire Wolf where you are met by FIDO who is your on-board computer who gives you your mission orders.

On the Dire Wolf you can save your game in the sleep chambers, heal yourself with health fruits if you have any, transport down in your Big Sky Trooper suit or approach the console to access more options. At the console you can talk to FIDO, look at skyway map where you can travel or look at the viewport to see outside and deploy transport relays. FIDO is a big help because he acts as the in-game help as well as the game guide. You can ask him about any object in your inventory or review your mission orders. He also controls the ship when you're away from the ship.

The universe initially starts of with only a number of planets and places. You'll need to get starmap chips in order to expand FIDO's vision. When attempting to travel through the universe, transport relays are required to get around so you'll definitely need to have one either at the start or end of the journey. This brings us the next part of the game. To deploy transport relays you have to defeat all the spacecraft defending the area and defeat all slugs on the ground by transporting downwards in your suit.

Flying the Dire Wolf in combat has you looking at your ship from a top down perspective. You press A to accelerate, B to fire your cannon and X and Y to fire Quark Torpedoes and Space Mines. There is no friction in this game so accelerating means you keep on travelling unless you turn around and accelerate in the opposite direction. The weapons aren't really that different actually. A Space Mine is like a normal attack except when you release the attack button it splits up into four attacks while a Quark Torpedo operates in the same way except it has a huge explosion instead of splitting up. Attacking the spacecraft is a lot more difficult than it sounds because they are constantly moving and don't really seem to confined to the laws of physics as much as the Dire Wolf is. Your best bet is usually to stay in one place and fire as they cross in front of you. There are several classes of enemy ships although you'll probably face the smaller slug saucers most of the time. You can pick up upgrades of ships by travelling down and defeating space trolls who live in black holes but they are tough to beat.

As for fighting on the ground, you get suited up in your combat suit and sent down. Once on the ground you walk around the place, usually a planet, pick-up stuff or talk to people and of course defeat the slugs. Attacking is done by pressing B which fires out a bolt of electricity. Pressing Y activates your current inventory item. For example, a key or a bomb. X activates your suits currently powered module or moduleswhich will drain your energy slightly. You can return to the ship anytime by selecting and activating your FIDO uplink. A counter keeps track of the number of slugs left on the planet. Your health and energy bars are also displayed. Interestingly, you start off with 21 energy bars of what you see on the screen which is a great deal of life, much more than most games will even have and this only gets bigger as you upgrade.

Your suit can be upgraded just like your ship can. You'll get some mission orders detailing how to obtain a new ship module. The using of suit modules however is a minigame in itself. It's a sliding puzzle and you have to connect the energy piece with the other pieces. Different combinations of suit moduels even yield different abilities such as bounce shot or power shot. As you rise in rank, the health and energy capacity of your suit can get increased if you stop by the supply headquarters.

In various places you'll find a square on the ground marked 'FF' which indicates you can set up a fast food franchise there. This kills off all the slugs on the planet while ensuring the slugs don't invade ever. There are a few more things to do in the universe such as trading with salesmen for various items and talking to a planet's spirit.

Despite the varied gameplay however, there are a few problems with the game. The first lies with the space combat. As mentioned earlier the best tactic is to lie in wait and shoot the enemies. I sort of wished the Dire Wolf cannon shots were a little larger or the ship smaller so manuevering around would be easier and a more integral part of the game. As it stands, the Dire Wolf even at maximum upgrades is still better off moving as little as possible and spinning around firing at enemies.

Navigating on the skyway map is sometimes a hassle because there are no names on the map or anyway of annotating the map. It would have been better if there was some way to search for characteristics of each planet and what items were available on the surface.

Playing the game in your suit isn't really fun either. You have lots and lots of life but moving around and firing on enemies is tricky. The enemies fire extremely fast and your attacks are quite weak especially against larger slimes. The enemy slimes are often joined together and you have to attack them to separate them and attack the seperated single enemies. If you wait too long they might even join back up again. Most often you take damage even when taking down a two-eyed slime. It's just easier to go in attacking and taking damage than trying to avoid the attack. I suppose that's where the different attacks arising from your suit modules comes in but it's only later in the game that you get enough suit modules to make weapons which really Personally, I would have preferred less life and a better system of gameplay where you can avoid enemies and attack them with a variety of different weapons more easily. Another problem is the lack of enemies. There are only a handful of enemy slug types and handful of other kinds of enemies. That's it. You'll mostly encounter slugs with different number of eyes with the same sort of attack. Very disappointing.

Graphics: 3.5/5

The graphics are pretty cartoony and detailed. The variety of planets also means there are plenty of different kinds of environments such as space, jungle, lava and ice. What really drags it down is really the lack of enemies and other characters. There are only a handful of enemies and a handful of attacks really which is a shame. If there had been more sort of enemies and attacks this would have been higher.

Sound and Music: 3.5/5

The sound and music fit the cartoon nature of the game however the sound effects aren't too great. Nothing really good or bad about the sound.

Game design: 4/5

Most of the levels are actually quite compact. Interestingly there are no edges to the maps of most places. It just wraps around. Many even have multiple layers. As for the dungeons, they are quite complex to navigate and require a quick mind. Most gamers young or old will probably feel the dungeons are a satisfying challenge. Very smart level design indeed, getting as much room out of each small map. There is also enough variety in the missions to make the game interesting.

Perhaps the only problems is the lack of save points in the dungeons which are quite large, having to save planets again after slugs reinvade a place and the whole process of liberating a planet from slugs does get tiresome after a while particularly with the lack of enemy variety.

Longevity: 4/5

The game is fairly long and despite the gameplay and game design problems this a game most people will want to finish. It has a lot going for it, enough to sustain your interest.

For: One of the few games to have 'quantum' in it. Good graphics. Large universe. Compact level design.

Against: Gameplay could have been better. Lack of enemies.