PHELIOS

Apollo and Artemis are god of the sun and goddess of the moon. Created to
rule the world Gaia together, forever (Ok, so this part isn't accurate in
real Greek mythology, but it'll do).

That is, until the evil Typhon, ruler of Darkness, seized Artemis from the
sky as she rode on Pegasus near Delos where she and Apollo live. Typhon put
Artemis in his temple dungeon and had Medusa turn her to stone.

Apollo doesn't like that, natch, and he personally doesn't like Typhon at
all, either. Being the good and brave god that he is, Apollo vows to rescue
his sweetheart. He leaps onto Pegasus and gallops toward Typhon's temple,
ready to destroy everything with the nerve to get in his way.

Sounds like a good video game plot? Well, it is. The game in question is
PHELIOS, an excellent game available for Sega Genesis.

PHELIOS takes the classical 'shooter' type of game, combines it with the
tried and true, vertically-scrolling screen, jazzes it up with beautiful
graphics, vivid colors, and exciting sound effects, and ices it off with a
Greek mythological overlay. PHELIOS is somewhat similar in format to the
arcade game Dragon Spirit.

Apollo's trusty sword fires lethally bright fireballs; keep pressing the
control pad button to fill the screen with a rapid-fire volley. Or hold the
button down to energize the sword. A special power meter will show you how
much energy you've stored. When you release the button, the sword emits a
white-hot, blazing fireball that will destroy almost all foes in its path.

Problem is, Typhon cheats- hey, what would you expect from a bad guy? The
action gets hot and heavy very fast, and poor Apollo is besieged with more
enemies than his sword can handle all by itself. So the elder gods help to
even the odds by sending golden owls bearing gifts. These gifts can modify
and/or increase your firepower, grant Pegasus extra speed, or perhaps even
grant you an extra Life.

What about when you get really close to Typhon's temple, and things become
really wild and woolly? Don't despair yet. Typhon broke the legendary sword
of light, Phelios, into seven pieces, but he carelessly discarded them in
various places. Collect these seven pieces, and you can restore the light
sword to its full power. Only Phelios has the power to defeat Typhon.

PHELIOS is a fairly long game, since you must fight your way through seven
worlds and nether-worlds before being able to fight with Typhon. It will
give you hours of thrilling and pulse-pounding aerial combat.

Start in The Devil in Delos as Apollo rides out of his castle to begin his
quest and is promptly attacked by the fanged Shillef butterflies, and axe
throwing skeletons. Kill them and you take a dizzying ride among the clouds
over Delos while frying more Shillefs and the dreaded dragon Ladon. Can you
destroy Medusa and restore Artemis to her true self?

Fly through the Death Dungeon, fight your way to the Emmuza, and destroy
it to descend deeper into the caverns underground. Show no mercy to any foe
that blocks your path to the temple of the three Graiae sisters.

Emerge above the clouds in the realm of Blue Perboleos. Fry red dragonians
and then race through narrow twisting structures. Outrun Griffon Knights,
or make them collide with the walls. A beautiful Siren is in fact an evil,
malevolent witch- treat her as you would any other foe.

Enter the Fire Devildom, where you're greeted hotly by the Fire Bird, Fire
Bees, Green Heads, and the horrifying Himaira, their ruler. Do not rest to
wipe the sweat from your brow; ahead is the temple of the giant fire demon
Antaeus. Evade the lava pouring from his body and snuff him out.

Fly through Icebound Soul, the cold netherworld of ice floes. Crush Giga
and Mega, and evade the giant studded spheres of death. Enter the temple to
destroy Scylla, frozen in crystal as punishment for her avarice, but who
rules the ice world through the power of Typhon.

Fire Bats attack you vigorously over at the watery domain of the Watchdog
in Hell. Earth Demons hurl a deadly avalanche of boulders, and the Water
Tarantulas attack from underneath the river. Fierce Cerberus, three-headed
watchdog of the netherworld's gate, doesn't intend to let you pass.

Only a true hero can make it this far in one piece. Navigate and slash your
way through the maze and locate the seven pieces of Phelios, the sword of
light. Even with this legendary blade in your hand, you will be pressed to
enter the inner sanctum of Typhon and engage him in the final showdown for
all the marbles- and Artemis.

The graphics in PHELIOS are beautiful and snazzy, with bright, vivid colors
and smooth animation. The music and sound effects are very nice as well-
except the very irritating voice that gleefully shouts "HIT!" whenever you
are injured. You can learn to loathe that voice quickly. But the dazzling
screen displays must be seen to be appreciated. When necessary, PHELIOS
makes full usage of Genesis' awesome 3-Dimensional display abilities. The
3-D effect is most noticeable in The Devil in Delos, and Blue Perboleos.
The final duel with Typhon is sure to make your heart race and your hairs
stand on end. You must vanquish your arch-foe to get Artemis back.

Sadly, the ending sequence of PHELIOS is rather disappointing. The graphics
and music are excellent, don't worry about that- but I expected much more,
particularly right after conquering Typhon. Instead of a fade to black, I
expected Apollo flying into the inner regions of the temple, which would be
full of lewd decorations, and landing in front of Artemis' prison to set
her free (like the ending in Dragon Spirit). One particular part of the
ending was plain silly, but the rest of it was satisfactory.

The biggest problem with PHELIOS can be summed up as this: it's easy for
somebody to label the game as being "just another shooter." In a way, it
is. Strip away the top-down, vertical scrolling screen, the sharp, colorful
graphics, the great sound and music, and the Greek mythological element,
and you have "just another shooter." But every shooter is unique, in its
own special way. If this were not the case, we wouldn't have so many "just
another shooter" games available for any home video system. Some shooters
are poor, some shooters are mediocre, some shooters are fair, some are good
and some are excellent. PHELIOS is an excellent shooter, because of what it
has. It has color, it has excitement, it has speed, it has great music and
sound, it has a seasoning of ancient Greek mythology, and it has all the
wizardry of Namco (which produced the legendary games Galaxian and Pac-Man)
in its memory chips.

The Novice mode of PHELIOS lets you learn the game at a slightly slower,
less furious pace. But you can only go through the first four chapters of
the game in this mode. If you defeat Typhon, you have the chance to try an
Expert Mode, which is really fast and furious. This option goes away if you
turn the game off and then turn it on again.

Because of PHELIOS' inadequate ending sequence, and the fact that its Greek
mythological element might not appeal to everyone, I rate the game an 8.5
on a scale of 1 to 10. It's a great game, but so are a number of shooters
available, with different gimmicks that different people like.

PHELIOS is produced by Namco Hometek, Inc. Licensed for Sega of America.