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VAXINE First, they did HARMONY. Now VAXINE. Taking some of the elements of the first game, VAXINE recombines them into an utterly Mutant design that almost defies description. It's beautiful, bizarre, nerve-wracking, attention-absorbing, and should appeal to anyone eager for an arcade strategy game. I said a while ago that HARMONY should get as much attention as TETRIS did; and I feel the same about VAXINE -- it's a sui generis concept that deserves to become a classic. (This review is based on the Amiga version) The metaphor you're operating within suggests that you're on a kind of Fantastic Voyage inside the human body, in a first-person perspective, out to help destroy a series of invading viruses. It works nicely as a shell for the game, which is played in an ARCHIPELAGOS-like three-dimensional space that allows you to move in any direction you'd like. The significant difference between ARCHIPELAGOS and VAXINE, however, is first that the scrolling movement is _much_ more fluid, and secondly that the animation is much more elemental; this gives the game an intense, abstract feel, like chess, which allows for complete focus on gameplay without distraction. The screens in each of the infinite number of levels consist of a chessboard- like floor, a circle of stars rotating just above eye-level near the beginning of the level (the Star Tree), a series of mounds on the floor, a few slab-like monoliths, and lots of round, bouncing balls, moving in all directions at once through the three-dimensional gamespace. Imagine yourself as one of the pieces on the board flying in a hovercraft, chasing balls floating lazily above the board's surface, and you'll get the general idea. VAXINE is played with either a mouse or a joystick in the Amiga version; the mouse is most effective. Movement is significantly reminiscent of Dan Gorlin's TYPHOON THOMPSON, with the same speed and flexibility. There's something exhilarating about this kind of arcade animation design; you experience a sense of speed and motion that feels more like a joyride than anything else in computer gaming, and unlike most arcade games, movement is completely unrestricted during play. Upon boot-up, you're given three options for configuration. The Mode option allows for selection between Demo, Practice, Normal, and Advanced play. Practice leaves you all your bases, thus removing the time pressure element from play. If all you want is to wander around and knock down balls without worrying about being interrupted by a Game Over message, this is the ideal mode to play in. Practice definitely makes perfect in VAXINE; I wouldn't recommend moving on to the Normal game until you've learned how to handle hitting the balls without alot of wasteful aiming and maneuvering. Like tennis, your "serve" is all-important, and developing it involves real skill. Normal mode is where the game really begins. In this mode, you start a level with a given number of bases (the mounds mentioned above), which are under attack from the balls. Whatever the level, the balls eventually begin to link together with rubber-band strings (how Assembly Line models the physics of such movements and relationships is beyond me); in Normal and Advanced modes, they also ultimately attach to a base and eventually destroy it...unless you can get there first and knock 'em back apart from each other. Once all your bases are destroyed, that's the end of the game (there's a 10-second countdown during which press of the fire button restarts you at the same level). Finally, Advanced mode places you approximately ten levels up in the game, thus allowing initial play with a significantly tougher challenge. The game begins with more balls already out there, and more balls connected to each other. There's an option at the start to select Mouse or Joystick for play, and finally, an option which turns inertia on and off. If you play with inertia on, the movement of the craft will impart extra motion to shots in the direction you're moving when firing. Once you're all configured, pressing fire starts the game. You normally begin near a monolith and the Star Tree, and there's a timed countdown before the balls start to generate on-screen. During the countdown, shooting balls at the circle of rotating stars provides points and extra ammo for later play. All objects except the monolith come in three primary colors, and selecting matching colors before firing at the Star Tree improves point score and the amount of ammo accumulated with a hit. The monoliths provide an interesting "freeze" function; passing through one stops all action on the screen for a timed period, during which you can more easily wipe out attacking balls. However, there's a penalty for making use of the monoliths; the balls become more aggressive once the countdown ends, essentially moving the difficulty level up a few notches. The main action during play involves shooting (well, more like _launching_) your own balls so they'll hit enemy balls. The appearance of both is the same, except that your balls dissipate quickly after being fired. Hit an enemy ball with a like-colored ball, and it explodes into a bunch of smaller balls, which then disappear. Hit with a different-colored ball, and the enemy ball is turned into a star, which can then be fired upon to gain extra points and ammo. You can make your own strings of balls as well, which serve like wandering land-mines; enemy balls are always on the look-out for same-color balls to join up with, and they'll approach your string to join up, only to be blown up instead. Enemy balls link up with each other, and then go after a mound base; once attached to same, they eventually destroy it. Hitting the balls while they're attached to and bouncing around a base is one of the most difficult aspects of the game, and absolutely crucial to staying in play. The game is spread out over a very wide field; the chessboard analogy breaks down a bit here, as this board has no edges. Scrolling in one direction eventually gets you full circle, but there aren't any sign-posts to indicate exactly where you are. Psychic Radar serves a kind of on-screen map/hint function, however; stop movement for a second or two, and a word appears on the board to indicate which direction to move in to find the nearest enemy balls. Thrown into this already challenging mix, the Hatchers and Spitters make your life more complicated. Hatchers consist of three different-colored balls strung together; firing on them causes them to burst into a plague of new single enemy balls. _Not_ firing upon them won't help; they explode on their own, producing even more balls than they would if fired upon. Spitters are less ingenious, but no less dangerous. Looking like red blood cells, they travel close to the board and periodically produce new enemy balls. Though not as prodigious as the Hatchers, the Spitters can only be eradicated by tossing a ball so that it will land right on top of them, no mean feat. Gameplay is marvelous; like HARMONY, VAXINE is just tough enough; nowhere near so difficult it proves frustrating to play, yet replete with sufficient challenge to last as long as your interest in the game. Control is precise and detailed with the mouse; movement feels completely "analog," with just enough inertia to provide a sense of realism. Realism in a completely surreal environment? Hard to imagine, but true. The graphics and sound in the Amiga version of VAXINE are fabulous; both the board and the sky fade continuously towards the horizon -- none of that step- like design typical of IBM VGA designs attempting to provide such shadings. The balls and stars are both ray-traced and shadowed, giving them a thoroughly three-dimensional look (though the game appears three-dimensional, all graphics are bit-mapped for speed and detail). The opening soundtrack is funky and driving, and sound effects during play are all designed to be indicators of things happening outside the field of view (no music during play, fortunately). VAXINE comes on one copyable disk, and is hard-drive installable. It will run on all 68000-based Amigas, including the A1000, A500, and A2000. Copy protection consists of a black codewheel, which is reasonably inoffensive, though no real improvement on those brownish-purple sheets. Either a mouse or joystick are required for play. The game uses just 512K of RAM. Once the game is loaded, no further disk accesses take place. There are no save options available in the design (making it ideal for cartridge conversion). Simple, elegant, yet endlessly fascinating, VAXINE provides an almost-perfect balance between graphics design and gameplay. If you liked HARMONY, this is a must have. I hope The Assembly Line continues to develop games in this style; it seems even more amenable than TETRIS to significant variations on a common theme. VAXINE is published by U.S. Gold and distributed by Accolade.