Revolution X (1994)

Revolution X, for SNES

Rating: 4.0/10; Below Average

Revolution X is an on rails light gun shooter which uses the d pad to control the crosshair. There is no penalty for constantly shooting so the entire game is holding down a single button. Mix in throwing CDs which do more damage than the standard shot and are plentiful. Aiming is difficult to control because it seems like there is significant acceleration on the crosshair, which makes its movement inconsistent and unpredictable. Add to that the fact that most of the time the camera is scrolling, as if you are in a moving vehicle, the ridiculous amount of enemies and that many enemies throw projectiles that you can shoot to avoid damage but are difficult to hit because both you and the projectile are moving. The gameplay is mostly frantic as you struggle to keep up and hit anything with reasonable timing but is interspersed with laughably easy sequences with few enemies. Also expect to be shot from off screen and be unable to do anything about it. The game gives 25 continues and there is no way to avoid using many of them, except maybe if you have a 2nd player.

Bosses are not as bad for the most part. Shoot vulnerable parts while shooting down projectiles but the game is inconsistent in showing just what the vulnerable parts are, leading to unnecessary annoyance. The helicopter boss, for example, has you destroy the weapons followed by the bottom (I think anyway). It would make more sense to target the rotors or cockpit but the game does not indicate what takes damage. The school bus was like this and made even worse due to a time limit. The game wants you to wreck most of the windows and frame but only a few of the parts flashed when shot. It would make more sense to take out the driver, engine and tires. The final boss was particularly poorly designed. A massive bullet sponge with no indication of what to shoot other than occasional grunts and taunts. I am not sure if it was even necessary to shoot at any side parts or just shoot his head. Not only that but the boss did no damage and there were infinite crates, including the occasional healing. The fight took a long time and was a colossal waste of time.

There were a few flashes of decent game design, such as destructible environments, secrets, alternate routes and some almost first person navigation. However most of this was ruined by the lack of balance, poor transitions that take away control while you watch a story scene or suddenly change scene despite plenty of enemies still being on screen, and overall confusion about whether or not you just have to shoot everything. While not absolutely terrible, the game has so many flaws that it is simply not worth playing for the vast majority. At the very most play as far as the final boss and quit without wasting time on him.

Beat on default difficulty. I did not find any of the band members. I struggled to figure out what to do in the school bus level and found it very poorly designed. The last couple levels were ridiculously hard and I lost several continues (ended using 9 total). The final boss was mind numbingly boring and I strongly considered quitting there.

Not the worst SNES game I have played but it is fairly close to the bottom.