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### Eliminator Preview [GBA]

#### http://www.foxysofts.com/

#### Previewed By J. Monkman

Kids these days have got it easy. Sure, current-gen games are often deep, involving and complex, but they never throw you in at the deep end without a tutorial or an insultingly-gentle learning curve. Hewson's Eliminator is the complete opposite - and is a prime example of hardcore, old-school gaming at it's most intense. The game is unforgiving from the outset, requiring patience to learn which routes to take, wave upon wave of enemy fighter to defeat, deadly barriers to avoid and power-ups to collect - all at blink-and-you'll-miss-it high octane speed.

Based on the Atari ST version of Hewson's classic 3D shooter, this work-in-progress GBA port from the unrelenting FoxySoft is looking really promising. The game is visually similar to Gremlin's Trailblazer, with the player's craft racing down a faux-3D chequered road that runs into the screen, but game-play wise Eliminator play's more like Space Harrier, with the player firing at sprite-based enemies and requiring a high level of dexterity to avoid the walls and other obstacles that hurtle towards the player at break-neck velocity. All of this is made more difficult by the constantly twisting and turning nature of the landscape (which at times drastically restricts visibility of what lies ahead), and during the tunnel sections the player is even required to fly upside down on the ceiling (via the use of ramps placed throughout the levels). To assist the player, weapon upgrades and ammunition are scattered along the road for you to collect (represented by rotating pyramids and cones respectively), but the catch is that you can only collect one or the other - make the wrong choice and your super-upgraded death cannons will be rendered useless.

It's a real shame that this conversion wasn't officially licensed to the GBA during it's commercial life, as Eliminator suits the handheld console perfectly. Like the original, the game is rock hard (bordering on frustrating), but it's equally playable and addictive - I remember breaking at least a couple of Atari joysticks playing this back in the 1980's and still coming back for more. On the presentation side it's a little rough around the edges, lacking the original title screen (despite an image of it being hosted on Foxy's site) and in-game audio, but game-play wise Eliminator GBA is spot-on. All of the original levels have been implemented (not that I've been able get very far as of yet) so it's just these finishing touches that are needed to wrap the release up. Hopefully we'll see a full version soon, complete with a tribute to John Phillips' original YM soundtrack.