Story: The Earth is being attacked by the evil conquerer Gylend. In response seven members of the Earth Command Troopers fight their way into his stronghold to destroy it's power source. Unfortunately they are found by Gylend and he turns five of them into energy balls and scatters them throughout time. It is up to Yohan and Ben to travel through time to rescue their friends before facing Gylend to a battle for the ownership of Earth.

The game is played from a birds eye view in a similar style to Secret Command and Ikari Warriors. It is split into many stages. You are told which time period you will find one of your friends and you must travel through the different time periods until you find them. At the end of each stage if there is no friend to rescue you will fight a mini guardian but if there is a friend to rescue you will have to fight a huge guardian.

All you have is a basic shot weapon one of a variety of special weapons that can be picked up on the way.

A second player can also be used simultaneously.

Rating = N/A

Graphics: For such an early title the graphics in the game are quite impressive.

The backgrounds for each of the time periods are varied and detailed so that they don't get boring too quickly. They also give the time periods character such as the vegetation in the prehistoric era and the dilapidated houses in the world war period. There is also no slowdown with the scrolling. The only let down is that when you are fighting a large boss there is no background at all it is just black.

The players characters are small yet detailed but they lack personalities. They just look like generic game heroes.

There are plenty of enemy designs which suit each period that they are in. They are well drawn and are animated effectively. Most impressive of all are the level bosses. They are simply huge and take up most of the screen. They are very well produced and there is no noticable flicker or slow down when they are on screen (although the background is just plain black which helps speed things up).

The only problem I have found is when there is a lot of action on the screen there is some flickering making incoming shots harder to see.

Rating = 7/10

Sound: There are plenty of tracks in the game but none of them are so good that I will be remembering them for a long time afterwards. They are well produced though and do not become boring at all its just that they are really mediocre.

As for the sound effects they are generally pretty pathetic and weedy. To say you are carrying around a weapon the size of a rocket launcher you wouldn't believe it by the sound it makes. The only sound effects that seem to be anywhere near good enough are the noises that the special weapons make and some of the larger explosions.

Rating = 5/10

Controls: Simple to learn, even easier to master. The Directional Button (D-Button) is used to move your character around the screen. Button 1 is used to fire your basic weapon. Button 2 fires a special weapon when collected.

Although the controls are quick to respond your character just moves too slowly so it can be very hard to dodge shots sometimes.

I can't help thinking that this games would be better suited with a control method like Robotron with one joystick controlling your movement whilst another fires in the desired direction.

Rating = 7/10

Playability: To start with this game is quite fun but once it starts to get hard it can be very frustrating. All this is because your character cannot move very fast at all. This becomes a major pain when you are fighting a boss as they just fire constantly and you can only just dodge their shots but you don't have enough time to fire accurately at them. With a faster character and more imaginative attack patterns for the bosses this could have been much more enjoyable.

Otherwise the game is quite long and the change of time periods makes the game more interesting and less dull. There are also plenty of weapons to collect but I do think that the weapons should be based on the time period there are found in. Such as grenades in the world war period or spears in the prehistoric period.

I still find the game quite addictive though especially when you play it with two players as you both try to get the best weapons first.

Rating = 7/10

Value for money: Although the game starts off quite easy, once you've saved your first three friends it becomes quite challenging. The shooting becomes more frantic as there are more enemies on the screen and the bosses become tougher to beat.

Dying in the game can sometimes be a frustrating affair especially when your death was caused by the character moving too slow but otherwise there is plenty here to keep you blasting for a while.

Rating = 7/10

Rarity: I bought my copy for £1.50 on ebay. In a shop such as Gamestation you would be looking at the £2.99 to £4.99 mark for a complete copy.

I wouldn't say that this game is rare but it is quite uncommon. One usually appears on ebay every month and goes for under £3.00 most of the time so it is worth getting when the opportunity arises.

Rating = N/A

Overall: It may seem like I am being a bit harsh giving it an overall of six but if you are playing with a friend then I'd give it a 7. If you are buying a game to play on your own I would suggest Secret Command as I find it a much more enjoyable experience. Buy this if you have patience and the time to put in to complete it.

Rating = 6/10