First the was menace-e-e, now... Pysgnosis presents... a D.M.A Design game. Blooohd Mohneeyyy....
I'll get this out of the way first - I don't really like this game. As arcade games go, and those of the pure shoot em up variety, I think there were plenty of better ones on the Amiga.
Still, it did have some good points - one of which was the awesome Blood Money Intro as well as the haunting soundtrack, so let's have a look at one of many arcade games released by Psygnosis.
As usual with games released by Psygnosis the cover art had little to do with the game itself. It was pretty nicely drawn though.
The intro sequence had little to do with the game either - but at the time it was extremely impressive.
Anyway - in this arcade game you had four planets to 'plunder', and you started off with $200 in the shoot em up bank.
This $200 allowed you to start zapping on Planet 1 ($100 entry fee) or Planet 2 ($200 entry fee). Why you had to pay to be attacked by hordes of blood thirsty aliens is anyones guess.
In classic arcade tradition shooting the bad guys released bonuses - and in this game it was coins that were dropped. Picking them up increased your wad of cash.
At certain points in the level you would reach a supply locker where you could purchase from a variety of eight different weapons. The usual suspects were all here, missiles, speed up, rear firing rockets and so on.
Building up cash reserves also allowed you to enter Planet 3 or 4 - with each planet being suitably different from each other. You also got to pilot a different craft on each planet which was a nice twist.
The drawback in the game is well... the gameplay. The levels scroll slowly by, and enemies swarm over the screen. Sometimes indestructable nasties would shoot out at you from the sides of the playing area (not nice) and some parts of the playing area were 'dead ends'. About a minute into the game a radio tower type thingy 'reversed' your playing controls (unless you destroyed it) - talk about being thrown in at the deep end!
It was seldom that your reflexes would get you out of trouble - this game was more a case of learn the patterns of the aliens, learn the level layout, wash, rinse and repeat to complete a planet.
The music whilst being suitably haunting also becomes repetetive - although it could be switched off if you wanted to.
This game recieved loads of positive reviews when it came out - I bought it a few years later when it was released at £7.99 in the Sizzler range.
I'll maybe get flamed for this but I could never see what all the fuss was about.
We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator and download Blood Money. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys
GENRE: Arcade Game (Shoot Em Up)
RELEASE DATE: 1989
RELEASED BY: Psygnosis
DEVELOPER(S): Dave Jones, Tony Smith, David Whittaker, Ray Norrish
PRICE: £24.95 (£7.99 re-release) - UK
Classic Games, Arcade Games and Amiga Games
2 comments:
THANKS FOR A GREAT REVIEW AND VIDEO. BROUGHT BACK SOME GREAT MEMORIES! I PLAYED BLOOD MONEY TO DEATH!
Awsum many a late nights on the apricot 80386 playing this! Thanks
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