¢PD SOFTWARE SCENE¢¢¢MEGABLAST¢¢Reviewed by Kevin Cooke¢¢ The object of MEGABLAST is to shoot your opponent and destroy them by reducing their energy to zero. This may sound like a standard task but there is one main difference - between you and your opponent are a number of reflectors which re-channel your shots and sometimes even reflect them back at you.¢¢ There is one ship at the top of the screen and one at the bottom. Each can only be moved left and right. The real fun comes from shooting the icons that appear in the playfield. There are bombs which explode, icons that reverse your opponents controls, lightning icons to speed up your shooting, shields that protect you either until you are shot or until a timer runs out, and a star that will add other items to the screen.¢¢ The graphics in MEGABLAST are good, very good in fact. What greatly adds to the game though is the digitized sound which you will get on any 130XE or expanded XL. This consists of digitized tunes by Genesis and various other sound effects. If you aren't lucky enough to own an upgraded machine you will still get an excellent tune.¢¢ The game itself can be played in two player mode (the best way) or in one player mode against a computer opponent.¢¢ Needless to say, Megablast is VERY good. The best news though is that the loading screen says "Now loading... MEGABLAST 1". Does this mean that there is going to be a MEGABLAST 2? Let's hope so!¢¢¢SOFWARE SCENE RATING:¢¢GRAPHICS..........76%¢SOUND.............91%¢GAMEPLAY..........89%¢VALUE FOR MONEY...94%¢¢OVERALL...........89%¢¢¢MEGABLAST is available from the NOSAUG PD Library as Disk G18, coupled with MERCHANT SPACEMAN. Please note that this disk is 1050 density. If you enjoy Megablast you should also check out NOSAUG PD Disk G22 (Machine Code Games 3) which contains what seems to be the game that was improved into Megablast, LASER DUELL.¢
