Granada X review - Sega Megadrive

The year is 2016, and the Earth is ravaged by global war. However, peace conventions in the 1990s banned the use of nuclear weapons and all the fighting is carried out by super-powerful vehicles. One man is a mite peeved at all the devastation going on around him, so it's fortunate he is the owner of the legendary Granada X tank, the most powerful ever, and as a result is in a good position to do something about it. His plan of action is to randomly attack military enemy sites and forces until everyone sees the error of their ways and stops shooting each other.

Granada X is another Megadrive shoot 'em up, but this time it's got a few original ideas such as top-view multidirectional playfields and a novel control system. As usual though, there are lost of nasties to shoot, lots of extra weapons to shoot them with and, of course, those end of level guardians to contend with.

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Blimey! It's a shoot 'em up on the Megadrive! I haven't seen a hundred million of these before, honest. It must be said that the genre is wearing thinner than Paul Daniels' hair, but Granada X fortunately has more redeeming features than said magician. The maze-like structure and seek-and-destroy missions put it a cut above the standard linear scroll blasters, and the sheer variety between levels means that there's plenty here to keep you coming back. If you're buying a new shoot 'em up and want something different, go for this.

Don't judge this book by its cover! On the surface, Granada X is a sad sham of small, feeble-looking sprites and rather naff backgrounds. Get into it, though, and find a really original and challenging blaster which tests the mettle of even the toughest of shoot 'em up addicts. The game gets better the further you go and on later levels there's a frenzied assault on your tank - if your reflexes aren't up to scratch, it's goodnight Vienna! Granada X doesn't rank as an absolute must, but if you're a fan of difficult-to-complete, fast-action games, check this out.