It's not everyday you receive a brand new Vectrex game in the mail let alone one wrapped in purple bubble-wrap with the distinct postage mark as coming from sunny California in the US. The Vectrex community hasn't had a lot to rave about lately since the release of the excellent Protector/YASI (Herbert) in 2003. Let's face it, not many people are programming for the Vec anymore. This is why I was eager to plug my new I, CYBORG cart into the grand old girl.

 

The first thing that strikes you about I, Cyborg is the packaging. This has got to be some of the most practical packaging I've seen. And the little black case houses the authentic GCE Vectrex cart and a nice little instruction manual which fits snugly so as to make up a package which will look good next to any other packaging from any other console be it commercial or homebrew. The manual is very well set out with an introduction paragraph, which sets the tone for the game, plus every bit of detail you will need to know to use the vast array of special weapons and face the deadly bosses.

 

When the title graphic appears and the trademark Geofury soundtrack begins you are faced with 3 options, which include starting a new game, entering a key code or viewing the credits. What is unique to this game is the key code system. Once you progress to a certain level of the game you receive a key code. This system favours the gamer as he/she need not go back to the start of the game once completing a certain section but input a key code to go right back to where he/she left off. There is space for 3 key codes so as you can probably tell this game is quite long at around 32k with many levels.

 

Once beginning a new game the cyborg appears on the screen surrounded by a huge corridor, which appears to be never ending up ahead. Pushing forward on your control panel's joystick let's the cyborg walk forward. Once walking forward, so as to try to reach the end of the corridor, the cyborg encounters enemies coming at him from front on and from the roof. ‘Decapitators' are the most deadly enemies in the ‘corridors', which need to be shot by the cyborg's very impressive ‘electrified-acid mist' that does the job on these guys plus helps kill other enemies. The lasers firing from the roof in the corridors also add excitement and a certain amount of strategy to the game as you try and guess which side of the corridor the laser will try and shoot you at.

 

If you manage to get past the ‘corridors' you will reach other levels. There are 4 corridors in all. One of the earlier levels, after the corridors' is called ‘trench'. There are 4 trench levels and for me this is where the game really starts. Once out in the trenches the graphics really shine as the cyborg heads toward a beautifully drawn sci-fi mountain range and comes up against ‘Warbirds' and ‘Flying Filth". In order to shoot the warbirds the cyborg can turn his head left or right and shoot his mist while continuing down the trench. What I really love here is that the game utilises nearly all aspects of the Vec's control panel and firing upon enemies requires using buttons 2,3 and 4. The trench levels really give the game the full feeling of an actual 3-D gaming environment. The enemies that come at you are very well animated and this must have been quite time consuming for the maker of the game George Pelonis.

 

There are many levels after the ‘corridor' and ‘trench' levels that will entail, as mentioned previously, the destruction of the bosses and enemies. Special mention must be awarded here to the vast array of characters in I, Cyborg. There must be around 10 different sorts of enemies. Some can be killed but some just need to be avoided to progress. I, Cyborg is set at about the right difficult level. Experienced old-school gamers will find the game challenging and not easily mastered. Newer gamers will have to get used to the button configuration of the control panel but if he/she has played Gravitrex (Dondzila) or Protector (Herbert) before then he/she should know their way around a Vectrex control panel and how to use it.

 

Overall I, Cyborg is an excellent game which will have you spending many hours at your Vectrex just trying to get that little bit further so as to find a special weapon or view the beautifully rendered characters and surroundings. The graphics are top-notch and to sustain this amount of graphical detail for so many levels is simply astounding. Wait till you see the animation of the huge bird-like creature that flies overhead in one of the later levels. The sound is also very good with chunky arcade-like sound effects. Protector and Gravitrex now have a brother, as I, Cyborg joins these two games at the top of the Vectrex gaming tree. Buy this game today!

 

Graphics  : 7.5

Sound     : 7

Gameplay : 7

 

Score 7/10

 

Review written by Daniel Foot