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Dom Robinson reviews
Sony
- Price: £39.99
- Players: 1-2
Contrary to popular belief, this is not a TV programme fora popular brand of fizzy drink, but a sign that fireworks night has come atthe wrong time of year.
In a twist on Tetris and Bust-A-Move – and a game that firstresembles Missile Command to a degree – scores of fireworks will belaunched from the ground into the air for you to link and then explode allin one go. Be wary that you must link the fireworks quickly and explode themotherwise those not taken will declare a “miss” and you’ll lose out on points.If that sounds difficult and bizarre then relax because it’s surprisinglyeasy to get to grips with, although it can only be played with an analoguejoystick, so while the PS2 will enable the use of a standard joypad it cannotbe used with Fantavision.
The more explosions you link together, the higher the number of chains ordaisy-chains you will create and the more points will be accumulated. Fromtime to time, bonus tokens will appear. Collect these and the word “STARMINE”will build up at the bottom left of the screen. What was bizarre, though,was that the letters inside the tokens didn’t spell that word out. When thisis complete a bonus level will be played for you to accumulate more points.
Those in the know will tell you that you need to link explosions of the samecolour, but I found I could connect different ones together and I stillcreated a spectacle more impressive than the Millennium celebrations and thevibrations coming from the joypad add to the enjoyment.
The game look gorgeous as the multi-coloured marvels light up the sky, withyour viewpoint first floating over a cityscape and then the Earth from up inspace and the sound has more than a touch of the Jean-Michel Jarres to it.
The two-player option divides the screen in two and you each take control ofyour own half, with an equal number of points available to either player.
What I must point out though is that despite the glamour, I hadn’t much of aclue what was really going on and couldn’t begin to explain why I lost duringStage 4. SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ORIGINALITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.