Standard sci-fi action
Anyone looking for a slightly unusual slice of retro action might find this little known release from US Gold worthy of their time, offering as it does a few neat variations on the shooter genre. The principle of the game is fairly simple, comparable perhaps to the likes of Alien Breed or Gauntlet, and simply requires to manoeuvre their heavily armed robotic killing machine through a series of top down levels, which rotate freely around as you go. Of course, adding to the challenge are the numerous enemies of a mechanical nature and which are determined to see you to an early place on the scrap heap. Levels are composed of multiple stages or sectors, but which are not always linked together, so in addition to taking out the bad guys you may also have to use the moving pathways to help you out and which requires a little bit of planning. As with any shooter, there are a few weapon upgrades to be discovered which adds to the fun but the ones on display here are fairly average rather than spectacular, although they are solid enough. Rotox is a fairly decent attempt at a slight spin on the shooter genre and certainly provides some enjoyable blasting action, with an extensive range of levels that are highly challenging. The graphics are reasonable if unspectacular, with some chunky sprites but with environments that are somewhat repetitive both visually and in terms of gameplay. There are a few neat twists, such as the rotating screen but after the novelty has worn off, you are left with a standard arcade blaster which fails to leave much impression.
