Lethal Xcess

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Lethal Xcess is a vertical scrolling shooter game. All the classic shoot 'em up features are included, much like its predecessor (Wings of Death) and the two player mode adds a little more depth to the whole gameplay. You begin your flying voyage with laser cannons shooting triangular (!) projectiles, which can be powered up or exchanged for other weapons as long as you shoot down enemy spaceships! There are seven upgrades in total, all introduced by a digitized voice (i.e. "Drone", "Wiper" etc). The game is not an easy ride and much like its predecessor, the incoming enemies are tough and fast. In fact, most of the time the gameplay area is swarmed by enemy laser shots, making you zig-zagging all the time! Throughout the game's five stages, the number of the enemy sprites gradually increases (!) while towards the end of each level there is always something...BIG waiting for you...! A good strategy is to try and pick one weapon and stick with it, since the more powerful it gets, the more effective it can be, especially on the end-level boss. Much like Wings of Death, Lethal Xcess is a very good effort in the field of shoot 'em up gaming of the past.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The ST version offers good graphics (similar to the Amiga and the enhanced STE version) without being absolutely exceptional. It is colorful, using up to 30 colors on-screen with interrupts (same technique found on the STE version as well), nicely detailed backgrounds and sprites, while the game runs pretty smoothly. Using a special sync-scrolling technique developed by the Eclipse Software team, nobody would have expected that the Atari ST was capable in performing a 50 FPS scrolling game. The sprites move like hell without the need of a Blitter chip (note that the STE and Amiga chipsets include a Blitter and thus sprites move smoother when too many sprites occupy the screen). Soundwise, the ST version (and STE, Amiga) is awesome, and continues to impress much like the previous Eclipse's game, offering a variety of greatly done tunes, written by Jochen Hippel, along with a plethora of sampled SFX (note that those sound effects are in stereo on the STE and Amiga versions).