Tommy Gun

Title		Tommy Gun
Game Type	Shoot-em-up
Players		1 or 2
Company         Mutation Software
Compatibility	All (1 Mb)
HD Installable  Yes
Submission	Joachim Froholt (jfroholt@my-deja.com)

Review
This game was the second in Mutation Software's Value'n'Fun series. It
followed the rather popular Tin Toy in the House of Fun Adventure, but
failed to get the attention the first game got, mainly because of poor
review scores.

Tommy Gun is an Operation Wolf style shoot'em'up, and features a killer
tomato with an attitude. Some nasty aliens have invaded earth and turned
all the vegetables and animals crazy! Tommy (the tomato) must stop them
before it is too late! You must control Tommy through five levels filled
with evil vegetables and other nasty things. If you have a friend, he/she
can play as Tommy's sidekick, a gun-wielding cheese.

Your character(s) are in the bottom of the screen, but you only control
them indirectly, because the thing you really control is a crosshair which
can be moved in any of the joystick's directions. The goal is, as usual
with these games, to aim your weapon at some nasty enemies and blast them
away. When you move the crosshair to the left or right, your character
will move to the left or right. It usually doesn't matter where your
character stands because you can't see (or dodge) enemy bullets, but
sometimes you will have to avoid things like lava balls, ghost-trains,
etc.

The biggest problem you will encounter is the lack of ammunition. Once you
run out of ammo, your gun will only fire single shots. Fortunately, there
are some captured tomatoes who will reward you with some bonus items if
you can free them (by shooting the locks on their cages). These items are:
extra ammo, extra energy, an extra smart bomb (smart bombs will destroy
all baddies on screen), shield and extra life. To succeed, you must learn
to use these items properly (for instance, there's no reason to waste
ammunition when you've just picked up a shield, because the enemies won't
be able to hurt you anyway).

When I first tried this game, I found it a bit difficult, because I didn't
know how to fire the grenades, so I wasted all my ammo before I met the
end of level bosses. However, when I did figure out how to use these
grenades (the shift key), I didn't have many problems with this game.
After an hour or two, I found myself facing the end of game boss, who was
very easy to kill. I bet this game would be more interesting for children
or newbies since it is so easy, but us seasoned gamers won't have much
trouble with it. This is a shame, because the game is great fun while it
lasts, and a few extra (and more difficult) levels would have turned this
game into a much more challenging experience.

Tommy Gun features loads of cute and cartoony graphics and several decent
music modules (one tune for each level). The introduction sequence is not
very exciting, but the ingame graphics and music more than make up for
this. The game is a bit lacking in the sound effects area, though. There's
the usual gunfire and explosion samples, but that's all.

All in all, Tommy Gun is a great little game - but it ends far too
quickly. I don't think I can advise you to buy this game unless you can
get it for a very small amount of money. As a full price (or even budget)
title, Tommy Gun offers very little value for money unless you're a
complete beginner or wish to buy it for a kid.

This game is also included in a couple of compilations: Mutantology (Epic
Marketing), and Mutation Gold (Mutation Software).

Alphabetical list.