Terrahawks

Like I always say, when you're hungry for fast-paced shooting action on the Odyssey², it just doesn't get any better than when you're attacked by the Timelord. This time-traveling bad guy has now landed in your era, and he's brought a fleet of deadly Time Ships with him! His hideous red face appears in the sky, taunting you. The enemy fleet emerges from a whirling, multicolored rift in the fabric of time. They bombard you with an unheard-of four different kinds of armaments. You die in short order. But oh, you have a good time doing it.

Terrahawks is a "slide-and-shoot" arcade contest in the style of Space Invaders, only much faster. The Time Ships snake across the top of the screen at a breakneck pace. Your ground-based laser cannon is quick and maneuverable. As usual, you can only have one bullet on the screen at a time -- but your shots move fast, enabling rapid-fire tactics. The enemy missiles rain down furiously, and one hit ends your game. Quick reflexes are mandatory in this energetic battle.

The Time Ships' four distinct types of weaponry are what really make this game a winner. In the first round, they attack with white, arrow-shaped missiles that simply fall straight down from the sky. In the second, they begin to use antimatter mines -- shimmering red orbs that have some homing capability. Dodging these can be tough. When you make it to the third round, you face the lethal Annihilators, pulsing green X's that fall from the sky and then roll on the ground to destroy you. You can't destroy these when they're on the ground, so you have to nail 'em while they're still airborne or pray that they fizzle out before rolling into you. Finally, in the fourth round you get to experience the joys of the Nucleonic Time Killers -- shining diamonds that have the capability to anticipate your location before homing in on you. Good luck.

Of course, no description of Terrahawks would be complete without mention of The Voice. The Timelord appears for a few seconds between each round, giving you a much-needed breather. With The Voice, you can hear why. The fiend is threatening you! His statements range from the fairly innocuous "Goodbye, Earthling" to the much more ominous "The Earth will be mine!" His voice is synthesized using the phonemes built into The Voice module, giving it an alien, mechanical quality. If you manage to survive four rounds, the Timelord will begin to offer you grudging compliments. "Not bad, human."

Terrahawks is one of the fastest games produced for the Odyssey² and features some of the best graphics and sound on the system. The fact that you only have one life -- a problem that handicaps so many other Odyssey² games -- is perhaps the only flaw in this superb game. Otherwise, it's an excellent title that no Odyssey² fan will want to miss!

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