Xenon 2 - Megablast review - Sega Master System

Those evil Xenites are back, and this time they're twice as deadly! After having their baboon asses well and truly dusted in Xenon I (which never appeared on the consoles in any form at all), they retreated and regrouped, coming up with an even more dastardly plan for universal domination!

And what a plan it is! Their new blueprint for cosmic domination involves striking at the heart of the Earth Empire by blowing up massive bombs throughout the planet's history, thus making it an easy target in the future. To give their dangerous scheme an ever bigger chance of success, they've also deposited massive laser-spewing forces to guard the bombs, along with gargantuan end-of-level bosses!

As you may have gathered, behind the scenario lies a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up, boasting three levels of explosive blasting mayhem all backed by a Master System version of Megablast - the ball-bouncingly brill Bomb The Bass theme tune!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

As you must have already seen for yourself by looking at the screenshots on this page, Xenon II is one of the finest-looking Master System games yet released. Its gorgeous, beautifully coloured graphics make it look just like a 16-bit game - the backgrounds and sprites are all utterly stunning! And the game's not just a visual knockout, either. It's addictive and enjoyable to play, with three long and challenging levels to keep blasting fans happy. I don't think it'll take particularly long for shoot 'em up experts to finish th gam, but it's of such high quality that you just want to keep on going back to have another blast. The Master System game range, although huge, isn't exactly bulging at the seams with really high quality shoot 'em ups, so if you're a blasting fan make sure that you don't miss this.

I know that vertically scrolling shoot 'em ups are something of a rarity on the Master System, and while Xenon II holds lots of promise, it's a tad lacking in the excitement department, simply because of the game's pace. Even with no bolt-on weapons attached and hardly any enemy sprites on-screen, the action is just a tad too slow for my liking. This isn't to say that Xenon II is a bad game, because it's still quite addictive and there's a strong urge to see the next level and all the weapons. In fact, the sheer variety of weapons increases the lastability of the game. Once you've completed it, you'll want to do it again with different armaments! That should take a while though, because this is a very challenging game - it took me a fair few goes just to crack the first level! The other thing on Xenon II's side is that it is probably the best-looking and sounding Master System shooter, (though a few more sound effects in the MUSIC OFF mode would have been welcome). There's no doubting that all you starved Sega blast fans will love it, so what are you waiting for? Get down to your software store and give it a whirl!