Silver Surfer = Silver shit??

(Yeah, I just ripped off something from the AVGN. Had to start this review with something)

Well, in ye old days of the NES, Marvel began by giving the license to LJN, which has produced games of duvious quality. X-Men, for one, was quite notorious for the bad graphics, lack of backbone with the gameplay and dumb partner AI. Even when you had a friend to play it with, there were some things that gave you nothing but frustration when you play the game.

But today, I'm not talking about X-Men. Today, I'm gonna talk about Silver Surfer.

The story on the game goes like this: The Surfer has been summoned by Galactus on a dire emergency. The denizens of the Magik Domain are coming and they are attempting an attack that may well endanger the universe and the the balance that Galactus requires in order to sustain himself (And let's face it, if you were a planet-grubbing guy like Galactus and see something that threatens your own way of life, you'd be miffed too :P), so he calls on the Surfer to gather 6 parts of the Cosmic Device to assemble it and use it to stop the forces of Magik from taking over the universe.

Of course, the Surfer asks if he refuses and Galactus replies that he should not, since it's all riding on his quest to complete his task, and that's how we get started.

At the beginning, you check out a screen that seems to be a stage select one (just like in the Megaman games!) and when you choose one, you must take on the foe in question who has a part of the Cosmic Device. Your rouge's gallery includes Firelord, Reptyl, Emperor (good luck finding info on this guy. I only assume he's a Skrull), the Possessor and finally Mephisto. Each of the stages are themed according to each of the bosses and they're divided in three sections and two types of action. One stage is horizontal scrolling on which you have to pass through obstacles and enemies en route to a sub-boss and the boss on each third section. The vertical ones aren't too different, except that you have a classic shooter's perspective.

The graphics aren't outstanding, but they're certainly not bad. The enemies look true to type, although the bosses aren't too intimidating. A few elements stand out, such as flowing rivers, skulls that drip magma from their mouths and the depths of space. The Silver Surfer's sprite is almost pearl white, so he's hard to miss in the environment, although at some backgrounds, enemy shots tend to blend in a bit and thus they'll score a hit if you're not careful. You can see the obstacles on the stages, but that doesn't mean you should be careless. More on that later.

The controls are simple enough. A is for shooting, B is for switching the position of your attack spheres, Start pauses the game and Select activates a bomb blast. They respond quickly and you'll need every second, so you better have a controller with auto-fire capabilities unless you want a sore thumb. The gameplay is challenging, so to speak, as you need to be on your toes with the way your enemies move, shoot and float because they come out fast and they come after you the second they see you. You'll also need to watch out for objects like turrets and if that's not enough, you gotta be an expert fly boy to avoid crashing into an obstacle since it stands for instant death.

The music doesn't have much variety to speak off, but it does its job and it's not horrible. There isn't much I can say, except it doesn't suck and it kinda fits too.

As for powerups, you'll find an F item, which improves the Surfer's attack power. You can see five slots on the bottom of the screen, meaning you can increase your power up to five times. An item gives you an attack sphere which functions as an add-on, just like in Gradius and if you grab two of them, you can use them on the vertical stages. The B item gives you a bomb and you can carry as much as around 6-7 of them and finally the silver S gives you an extra life. You're gonna need all of them, I guarantee it.

Now for the bad things. As I said, the challenge in the game can be a bitch, and I also mentioned that you'll need every powerup available to survive in each stage. With one shot or anytime you crash into an obstacle you're down for the count and have to start over without all your powerups. Of course, there are certain checkpoints, but you better keep your eyes on the road. Another thing is the imbalance: Hard stages, wimpy bosses. In retrospect, the biggest task is to plow through the menagiere of enemies and flying past obstacles to survive and thrive in the field and when you reach those wimpy pussies of bosses it's a cakewalk compared to their hideouts. I believe the Emperor is the easiest of all and that's up for debate since the rest of the bosses are pitiful at best.

Silver Surfer isn't a bad game, but somethings could have changed a little bit to make it better. A tough game, to be sure. It gets a 7/10 rating from me.