Yet another quality ZX Spectrum title from Dominic Robinson, Steve Turner, Steve Crow and Hewson.
Zynaps was released in the summer of 1987 and proved that those bods over at Graftgold and Hewson still had what it took when creating quality arcade games or shoot em ups.
First of all Hewson were always well known for polished technical programming (just look at Technician Ted and Uridium for example) and this game featured animation at 25 frames per second, high resolution multicoloured scrolling graphics (not easy to accomplish on the Spectrum), a 3 dimensional parallax scrolling starfield and of course a 'myriad' of sprites.
There was not a huge back story to Zynaps - it was a good old fashioned arcade game (shoot em up), right to left scrolling and borrowing heavily from the classic arcade game Nemesis. For fans of this type of game, Zynaps was a must have title.
Anyway, this game was set in an alien infested planetary system.The game began with our hero escaping in Scorpion fighter from an alien station far out in deep, deep space.
After lengthy fighting our hero had discovered the location of the alien base and the final conflict was about to begin...
And so began the game.
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| Classic Gaming on the ZX Spectrum |
Armed with wing mounted pulse lasers as standard, further weapon powerups could also be added such as homing missiles, seeker missiles and plasma bombs to take out ground based targets.
In the usual arcade game style, shooting down a wave of enemy fighters would leave behind a blob of fuel which could be scooped up.
The first powerup to you was 'speed up' which increased your ships speed - but if you did not want this then you would wait and collect another fuel blob which then moved the powerup selection to 'increase firepower' and so on. This way you could pick and choose which powerups you wanted.
Once you had powered your ship up (you needed to as the game progressed too) you could dole out plenty of destruction to the alien craft and eventually alien motherships.
There was plenty of fancy flying required to manouver around hazards and avoid asteriods - all whilst trying to not be hit by enemy fire. All in all this game was straightforward arcade action in the traditional style which managed to get the balance of playability and difficulty just right. Hewson also managed to create nice and colourful graphics with barely any of the dreaded Spectrum attribute clash - more slick programming.
Games like this proved that there was still plenty of life left in the shoot em up genre by 1987 if it was executed properly.
On Release:
Fans of shoot em ups and the Nemesis arcade game loved this effort from Hewson. It was slick, playable, hard (but fair) and highly addictive. ZX Spectrum gamers bible Crash magazine awarded the game an overall score of 91% praising it for it's polished presentation and overall addictive qualities. It was well worth the asking price of £7.95 too. Zynaps was yet another big hit for Hewson, who barely put a foot wrong during the Speccy years.
The test of time:
Well here in Spectrum Games we still dig out this gaming classic every now and again for a quick blast. The game is still playable and for pure old-school arcade action you can't really go wrong. Still playable, still fun, Zynaps is a true classic game.
Hone those reflexes and load it up - it's still good.
We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair Hardware but if not them download zynaps for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
Please see our other ZX Spectrum game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.
GENRE: Scrolling arcade game
RELEASE DATE: Summer of 1987
RELEASED BY: Hewson
DEVELOPER(S): Dominic Robinson, Stephen Crow, Steve Turner
PRICE: £7.95 - UK
Mart needs some flying lessons from Major Lawrence Bartle Frere in Zynaps - a classic arcade game for the ZX Spectrum:
Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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