0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - B-Movie
B-Movie also known as Invasion from Beyond in
North America and France is a 3rd person Sci-Fi flight combat game
developed by King of the Jungle and published by GT Interactive, exclusively
for the Playstation.
The game released in Europe and North America
in November of 1998 with exact release dates for the game limited, the North
American release was on the 30th of the month the same for Germany,
but Finland is down as the 1st of November, other releases have the
release date down as just November 1998.
Notable members of the development team at King
of the Jungle, designer and programmer Paul Margrave has since worked on
Charlotte’s Web, Tales From Deep Space, Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster the
last two as a Senior Tools Programmer.
Set over the course of 30 missions of air
combat and air to ground combat with additional secret levels, ships and
weapons that can be unlocked, the prime focus of the missions is to kill all of
the invading Martian forces, EarthLink Command will also provide specific
objectives to complete while progressing through missions such as clearing out
a crop circle of enemies and protecting scientists from attack.
When you first start out you have just two
weapons, the standard machine gun and the Pummel Rockets, the machine guns is
an auto targeting chain gun while the pummel rocket is unguided that requires
timing and accuracy from the player. In total there are 12 weapons to find in
the game as you progress.
In addition to weapons the players ships have
additional tech to help in your resistance against the Martian scum with radar,
cargo holds and weapons mounts for additional firepower, They also have
something called The Suck-O-Matic, an experimental device which is used to
teleport and blow items out of your cargo hold, as well as retrieve items and
people in order for them to reach safety.
When it comes to ships there are a total of 12
in the game with 3 initially available, the Silverfish is the first and the
first candidate in the U.N. frontline fleet, you have the fast and responsive
Red Devil and the speedy but dangerous Whiplash MK.2, the remainder of the
ships can be found during your progress through the game.
B-Movie or Invasion From Beyond has the feel of
a classic science fiction alien invasion B-Movie, with farm working being
abducted, and crop circles appearing in farmland outside of Washington DC.
The
insults and superstitious fears of the local population were a welcome party
for the Martians that were ready to strike and take over the planet. Bring on
the EarthLink and their highly trained pilots who are the last line of defence
for the Earth against the invading Martian forces with one goal destroy them
all.
Largely the game received good to above average
review scores from critics with only a few reviews falling below that with an
average, below average review score received, the game did however also
received the humiliating score of 0 from one critic.
Starting with the best though which is an 83
from German publication Video Games with their review praising the bad sci-fi
horror and classic B-Movie style with scientist having long white hair and the
aliens being green, cuddly and ugly.
Dutch publication Power Unlimited were the next
highest review score with a solid 80 with their review calling it something
else, they went on to say, on the one hand you have a series flying shooter but
on the other you have the corny and lazy game full of B-Movie references.
GameSpot rated the game at a 76, their review
praising the non cookie cutter approach that has become the norm for new
releases and praised developer King of the Jungle, calling it impressive as
well as saying it bodes well for the developers future games.
Dropping down to a 71 rating we find two review
the first from NowGamer who compared the
game to the Strike series and if you are a fan of that series this game could
prove the ideal tonic. Also rating this game at a 71 was Absolute Playstation
they were much more critical of the game, while admitting the game looks cool,
sadly the gameplay does not follow suit.
The reviewer finding that avoiding incoming
fire was impossible however the review then went on to contradict themselves by
saying the skill factor is virtually nil, which is clearly not the case if you
could not avoid enemy fire.
Moving to the other end of the review scale we
find the truly depressing site of a 0 review score which comes from The Video
Game Critic. The reviewer was disappointed with the combat saying firing into a
group of flying saucers, it was hard to tell if you were causing any damage,
the review carried on saying the world below looks nice with its rolling hills
and detailed landmarks and a cheesy soundtrack suits the game well, however
these are let down by the extremely dull gameplay.
Joypad the French publication are up next with
their below average 40 review score, the review calling the game original and
funny, however the game is on the difficult side and the missions are not very
motivating with them being very similar and short as a result you tire of them
quickly.
Back to Germany for Mega Fun who scored the
game at an above average 56, their review calling the gameplay much too hectic,
despite the good graphics and good gameplay ideas they are let down by orders
that a kept to a too tight schedule and over time pushes the players motivation
(translated may not be word for word identical)
This is the part of 0
to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the
title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this
title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,
eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very
location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge
stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable
at other retailers.
So lets get down to
business with Gamedude who will give you just 25 cents if you are looking to
trade in your copy of B-Movie, listed as Invasion From Beyond on their site. If
on the other hand you are wanting to buy a copy of the game from them you can
pick one up for $3.
Moving on to
Retrogames.co.uk who sadly don’t have either of the title variants available,
so moving quickly on to eStarland.com we find the game listed, however the game
is currently out of stock, with prices usually ranging between $3.83 and $8.50
for a used copy. eStarland.com also offer a trade in for this game and are
willing to pay up to $3.50 for a copy of the game, this price will vary
depending on its completeness with a disc only copy worth just $1.22 when
traded in.
Lastly we have
Amazon.com where we find a pretty decent supply of the game available, several
of the cheapest copies are disc only and a few more while listed as being in
good or very good condition don’t have any more details which I am not keen on
(would it kill you to write if it is complete or not).
Moving on we finally
find a copy that says complete, this copy is a like new copy of the game and is
priced up at $8.74 once shipping has been added in. Several more copies are
available that say they are complete but none as cheap as this, with the
majority coming In at the $10 to $11 price range, several of the copies on
offer are the rare black label version of the game.
Used prices remain
pretty reasonable for this game with the odd exception of course moving on to
the new copies that are on the market, you will be looking at a minimum of
around $13 for a new copy of the game, with the price for a new copy generally
reaching a high of $21, one copy currently on offer does smash this price
though and is available for $43.57.
Written by
P J Gibbon
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