Cybermorph

Gameplay

At first glance would appear that the developers have tried to dog Nintendo's polygon flying game Star Fox but anybody who has actually played both games would realize that they are very different. In the game an evil empire has stolen all the new weapons your forces developed to defeat them. The only ship left is an intergalactic prototype cruiser known as the Cybermorph. It is your mission to round up all of the stolen weapons and kidnapped scientists that have been sealed into pods left on the planet surfaces while keeping enemy fighters at bay.

You start your game by selecting which planet you want to go to. Your ship can fly in 3 dimensions unlike Star Fox where your ship flies on a predetermined track. Most of the gameplay consists of shooting down enemies and collecting the "pods" which reminded me of picking up people in Defender. Aiming your guns is not always easy with a digital gamepad. Turning on your cross-hair makes it a little easier but you will still find your self circling around enemies a couple of times to hit smaller targets.

In the top left corner of the screen is Cybermorph's computer hologram who looks like the bald girl from the first Star Trek movie. While she is meant to provide direction in the game she is usually quiet or annoying. She'll tell you how many pods there are left or give you a pat on the back every time you shoot down an enemy but her must annoying phrase is "where did you learn to fly?" which she says whenever you bump into a wall. And when I bump into a wall I usually over compensate and hit another wall just to trigger the same phrase.

The player can collect power-ups left behind by enemies such as rapid fire, bombs or afterburner just to name a few. When have collected all of the pods you exit via portal and return to the planet select screen which consists of eight planets. When I completed all of these planets and defeated a ridiculously difficult boss (who looked like the floating head of a sentinel from X-men) I was taken to another planet select screen! Let me tell you, this game is long and I can't imagine ever finishing the game. This game takes a while to get into but you will most likely enjoy the gameplay in the long run.

Graphics

The graphics look like an average polygon game on the Jaguar. Cybermorph consists of enough polygons and they move fluently when the ship speeds up. The environment looks fine as well but unfortunately only buildings seem to have any kind of texture mapping and water is blue and perfectly flat. The enemies look a little worse than Cybermorph making it hard to figure out exactly what you are fighting sometimes. Your ship's weapons are simply orange balls and they don't look to interesting but overall the 3D graphics in this game seem like they had work put into the shapes to give them a unique appearance.

Sound/Music

The only music in the game is during the title screen which is unacceptable in 1993, especially since the Jaguar was advertised for having CD quality music. But what music is there sounds great. Sound effects are obviously digital recordings such as the laser effect or the afterburner noise and these sound great. Cybermorph's computer has digitally recorded voice which is wonderfully crisp and clear along with all of the other sounds filling the game but the game is a little to quiet without music.

Control

Controls are simple enough. Pressing A will increase throttle and C will decrease. The B button is used to shoot and the keypad turns a couple of features on and off. The only buttons on the keypad you will use during combat are 1, 2 and 3, they activate different power-ups you collect. While they keypad isn't ideal for this it is the only way possible on the Jaguar's gamepad. Flying the ship also takes a little practice at mastering the throttle and steering. But the controls work great for the most part.

Overall

Cybermorph is a fun game that most Jaguar owners will experience since it is the most common game. The game offers hours worth of gameplay and it's shortcomings should not destroy the game for anybody. If you loved games like Defender, you'll certainly like to fly through the levels in Cybermorph.