Um ganz ehrlich zu sein, bietet Cyberblast trotz Zeitlimit das wohl langweiligste Action-Labyrinth seit langen! Das Drama beginnt bei der abgenudelten Spielidee und endet mit einer Grafik, die höchstens vom müden Gameplay an Tristesse und Trägheit über- bzw. unterboten wird.

Dabei fängt alles so gut an: Man darf zwischen zwei Recken wählen und sodann alleine oder zu zweit (per Splitscreen) in die Schlacht gegen böse Alienhorden ziehen. Pro Level müssen fünf Diamanten gefunden werden, damit sich das Tor zum nächsten der insgesamt 64 Abschnitte öffnet, logischerweise stören ganze Heerscharen von Feinden die Suchaktion. Man ballert also auf alles, was da so kreucht und fleucht - bloß kreuchen halt ewig die gleichen Gegner in ewig den gleichen Angriffsmustern.

Auch sonst mangelt es an Abwechslung, denn die wenigen Spezialfelder wie Energiesauger und Freezer kennt man allesamt aus unzähligen anderen Games, und die herumliegenden Extrawaffen unterscheiden sich in ihrer Wirkung kaum voneinander.

Die farbarme, fitzelige Grafik und das Abstrakte Kanonenfutter passen in ihrer Einfallslosigkeit hervorragend zum schnarchigen Spielablauf, zudem ruckelt das multidirektionale Scrolling nicht wenig. Musik gibt es nur im Titelbild, während der Arbeit ertönt bloß nerviges Aliengeschnaufe nebst kärglichen FX.

Nein, da rettet auch die passable Steuerung den Freund nicht mehr. Cyberblast ist einfach schwach. So schwach, daß das uralte "Garrison" dagegen geradezu taufrisch wirkt! (rl)

Well I never, Cyberblast - from the company which brought us the impressive blaster - turns out to be a version of that old Atari arcade fave, Gauntlet, but with a science fiction theme. It's not an Alien Breed Mike Yarwood impression of one, you understand, but a full blown Bobby Davro.

Unlike the Gauntlet arcade original (and the Amiga conversion of its sequel for that matter) Cyberblast supports a maximum of only two players simultaneously.

These brave souls (or a single hero) run around a series of every-way scrolling mazes, avoiding and shooting adversaries and collecting treasures for bonus points. But Cyberblast has you collecting crystals before you can leave, whereas in Gauntlet you can simply head for the exit to move on to the next level.

The Cyberblast aliens emerge from incubators which are best blasted (Gauntlet had generators) and the beasts behave pretty much like the adversaries in Gauntlet.

Instead of collecting spells along the way, it's like-minded equipment including zappers (to destroy any adversaries shown on screen), bombs and grenades (which are both similar to the zappers only they also remove some areas of the walls), powershots (10 more powerful shots), stunners (which temporarily freeze the enemy) and magnets (which temporarily repel the enemy). Dynamite behaves much like the bombs, only it's shot instead of picked up.

Teleporters take you from one area of the map to another, and ID Cards not keys remove force fields as opposed to barriers. There are even special items for the taking (or avoiding), too. You can find yourself stunned or weakened or, better still, in possession of bonus points or more time to complete the level.

Cyberblast, er, isn't a disaster. It plays well enough but it's not far enough removed from the original Gauntlet idea to be worthwhile. I'm all for new angles on tried and tested concepts , but Cyberblast's authors should have made a lot more of the science fiction aspect. They could have at least given us some decent new fun weapons.

HARDLY ORIGINAL
I don't care that this game is set far into the distant future. I'm not all that bothered that the Trans-universal Portal Experiment has gone badly wrong and that the Earth is in serious danger of being swallowed up. You can't fool me, this is nothing but a complete rip-off of the ancient arcade hit, Gauntlet - and not a particularly good one either.

As mentioned, the Earth is in danger, and only you can save it. To do so, you have to work your way through 64 levels, killing everything that moves, collecting everything that doesn't, and escaping before your time runs out. If I told you that the entire game was viewed from above and scrolled in eight directions around the main character, or that two people can play over a split screen with large hordes of monsters coming towards you from small generators, would you think of Gauntlet? How about if I told you that there were levels where you had dozens of false exits? This game wasn't just inspired by Gauntlet - they have practically laser-copied the idea.

AND NOW THE BAD NEWS
But that's the good part over with, now for the bad. The game proclaims that it has '...more to shoot, dodge and grab than in any arcade hit!'. True, there is a great deal of blasting, but there is so much on screen that the game suffers for it. The speed of the action is atrocious, and that includes the scrolling and the responsiveness of the main sprite. What's the use of picking up a high-powered laser pistol if you can't even turn around quick enough to use it on the advancing robotic octopi?

In a word, Cyberblast is awful. There isn't an original idea in it, and although that doesn't automatically make it bad, the program is executed so badly. If you really want this sort of game, get Gauntlet II instead - it's cheaper and far better.