TremiRodomi's review of Phoenix

TremiRodomi

Played

Arcade

This game itself and it's history is so shrouded in mystery that it's fun to read about and theorize what might it's origins be, and for that, might just make it worth checking out for alone.

Stripping all that away, though, the game itself is a poor man's Galaxian that's rather frustrating and finicky, even by early arcade game standards. Oh well. At least it has the first boss battle ever, right?

6 Likes

Reviewed on Apr 15, 2021

1 Comment

TremiRodomi

3 years ago

If you wanna know me and a friend's take on who the real developer of this game is, though, we think it's Tekhan (later Tecmo, and now Koei-Tecmo). The game was said to have been made by a "smaller Japanese developer", and this game's release date lines up with Tekhan's formation as a game developer shortly after, so they probably fit the bill there. In addition, Phoenix and Pleiades (which is Tekhan's first game) share the same hardware other than CPU and some other minor differences. Doesn't explain why Taito seems to own Phoenix now even though they only published it in Japan, though. KT still owns Pleiades last I checked.