In this arcade shoot'em up your mission is to infiltrate the alien fortress during 6 levels, and to destroy the fortress and the alien. Sitting in Ajax H.Q., you must pilot the remote controlled drone ship to do this. The drone represents jet fighter (behind view) and helicopter gunship (top-down view). It may be moved on the screen, fire air-to-air and air-to-ground guns and pow bomb. Limitless hordes of mechanoid invaders, whose sole intent is the total domination of the Earth, will try to stop you. Exit from each level is guarded by the powerful boss, who you should eliminate.
Released on
Genres
Reviews View More
It builds on difficulty as you get further into it, but it also starts feeling tedious about halfway through a full run. Cool boss designs and nice visuals in general, but the After Burner style sections are a weak point. Overall a solid schmup.
Mixes vertically scrolling stages where you control a helicopter with three stages being a more 3D behind view where you fly a plane avoiding enemies and missiles before reaching a target to destroy. When you control the helicopter in addition to flying enemies ground targets have to be hit with bombs, where your bombs land is shown with a reticle slightly in front of you.
For an 87' game is looks and sounds good, good weapon powerups as well as an upgrade for a smaller helicopter that also fires your main shot to increase your firepower. Varied enemies and background on each stage. Has a checkpoint system when you and losing your powerups at some of those points, especially the very powerful fast shooting stream of missiles you can get will make the game pretty unplayable for most people if they try to carry on with the base weapon. The actual enemy flight and shot patterns tend to be fair until some ridiculous bosses in the last two stages where you will likely only be saved by the game's extreme slowdown allowing you to barely fit your fairly large target of a helicopter in between some strange shot patterns. Plane stages are fine and look good for the time but they are simple and short.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1629072812475584512
For an 87' game is looks and sounds good, good weapon powerups as well as an upgrade for a smaller helicopter that also fires your main shot to increase your firepower. Varied enemies and background on each stage. Has a checkpoint system when you and losing your powerups at some of those points, especially the very powerful fast shooting stream of missiles you can get will make the game pretty unplayable for most people if they try to carry on with the base weapon. The actual enemy flight and shot patterns tend to be fair until some ridiculous bosses in the last two stages where you will likely only be saved by the game's extreme slowdown allowing you to barely fit your fairly large target of a helicopter in between some strange shot patterns. Plane stages are fine and look good for the time but they are simple and short.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1629072812475584512
1987 had some great releases. Michael Jackson's Bad album, the first episode of the Simpsons, Mega Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are all solid examples of this to name a few. What isn't a solid example of this is Ajax, or Typhoon as it was called here in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of it, I hadn't either. It came on Konami's Arcade Classics Collection I play from time to time as a break from larger things.
The game really sets the scene with a Fighter Jet dive bombing towards a battleship in the water as if it was fired from a spaceship in orbit shooting missiles and planes coming up at it to a rocking soundtrack. It's a little clunky aiming sure but visually and conceptually for 1987 it's absolutely nuts. The second level instantly puts you into an average looking vertical shoot 'em up with a helicopter and it's kind of uninspiring. It plays fine and is the standard collect power ups of the type to give you 3 way shot, missiles, bomb, laser and Vulcan Cannon. Nothing clever to see here.
Sometimes nothing clever is fine though, I was having at least passable fun playing through initially. The issue is I simply couldn't finish the game. Even with save states on easy the stage 6 boss gave me such an intense pasting with a crazy cat lady's worth of projectile black orbs coming at me as well as even faster boulders. I admit I'm not good at shoot 'em ups but I don't think I'm that bad that I can't beat a game on easy with save states. Clearly I was wrong.
It's ok as a piece of history to play through, I'm glad I got to try it but I have no interest in playing it again. If I wanted to play a shoot 'em up I know would kick my posterior I'd just choose Thunder Force IV.
+ Opening level sets a bar the rest of the game simply can't hit.
+ Great music.
- The main game is just kind of forgettable.
- Mission 6 boss is a child born out of wedlock.
The game really sets the scene with a Fighter Jet dive bombing towards a battleship in the water as if it was fired from a spaceship in orbit shooting missiles and planes coming up at it to a rocking soundtrack. It's a little clunky aiming sure but visually and conceptually for 1987 it's absolutely nuts. The second level instantly puts you into an average looking vertical shoot 'em up with a helicopter and it's kind of uninspiring. It plays fine and is the standard collect power ups of the type to give you 3 way shot, missiles, bomb, laser and Vulcan Cannon. Nothing clever to see here.
Sometimes nothing clever is fine though, I was having at least passable fun playing through initially. The issue is I simply couldn't finish the game. Even with save states on easy the stage 6 boss gave me such an intense pasting with a crazy cat lady's worth of projectile black orbs coming at me as well as even faster boulders. I admit I'm not good at shoot 'em ups but I don't think I'm that bad that I can't beat a game on easy with save states. Clearly I was wrong.
It's ok as a piece of history to play through, I'm glad I got to try it but I have no interest in playing it again. If I wanted to play a shoot 'em up I know would kick my posterior I'd just choose Thunder Force IV.
+ Opening level sets a bar the rest of the game simply can't hit.
+ Great music.
- The main game is just kind of forgettable.
- Mission 6 boss is a child born out of wedlock.
There are a few segments in which the helicopter starts to descent vertically and the camera slowly shifts perspective, making it feel more personal and heroic, and it's probably the prettiest graphics I have ever seen in any 80's game and it's stuck in a shitty Konami game whose name references an underpaid sorry excuse of an european football team whose goalkeeper peed himself during a 2017 exhibition match.