Katakis

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Somewhere in outer space there is a planet called Katakis, populated by human colonies. Advanced artificial intelligent machines have been developed from the scientists, but soon enough those machines overtook the planet and captured the colonies. You, one of the survivors, must now pilot your advanced DS-H75 Eagle Fighter, attack the machines and save the planet from chaos.
Katakis offers a variety of power-ups that increase your weaponry and fortify your shields but the hordes of flying and ground enemies are a big problem. At the end of each level there is an end-level boss awaiting and can take lot of hits until taken down. As long as you press the fire-button, a more powerful shot is available.
Katakis' gameplay and features are too similar to the R-Type games, as well as most of its levels design.
The game supports two-players mode in which the second player controls the Force module and the first player controls the Eagle Fighter (quite awkward co-operation).
Overall Katakis is a great shoot 'em up, very addictive and one of the best back in the days.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The game's graphics are good, with up to 32 colors and offer nice background details from the original C64 version while the sprites move fast and the scrolling is smooth.
The sound includes some typical stereo sound effects, unfortunately no in-game music rather than an ambient, repetitive, echo sound. The introductory tune and the level-complete and loading tunes are great though.