Dead or Alive
First appeared in ZXF issue 4 (Spring 2003)
Author: Jonathan Cauldwell
Publisher: Cronosoft (www.cronosoft.co.uk)
Dead or Alive is the second Cronosoft release by Jonathan Cauldwell and quite a different game than Egghead in Space. A vertical scrolling shoot 'em up, this title sees you as the new sheriff, out to clean up the streets of your new patch in the wild west.
And wild is the appropriate world, for it would appear that your appointment has not gone down well with the residents, who turn out in their droves to shoot you down like the dog the clearly believe you to be. A veritable army of rough shaven, tobacco spitting, gun slinging bandits come at you; it probably crosses our hero's mind before he's even reached his first barrel (which, if shot a few times, might surrender extra fire power or speed to aid you on your way) that a job in a library somewhere doesn't seem so unattractive after all. He is not welcome. Happily, however, the laws of physics have decided to look kindly on you and make the bad guys' bullets travel more slowly than your own. It would be a bigger advantage if there weren't so many of them. It's obviously a popular town, but I can't for the life of me think why.
A word of advice: if you load this game into an emulator, play it in full screen mode and you'll get the hang of the controls that bit quicker. In fact, after a few frustrating cases of death-by-wandering-into-a-bullet-you'd-already-dodged-then-quite-forgotten-about, you'll find yourself laughing as you take your stroll up the street, the body count piling up as you go, weaving casually around those lethargic bullets and picking off baddies the moment they show their faces. That is, until you meet the super bad guy at the end of the level, who has had a word in the ear of physics and managed to wangle himself a gun with the same firing speed as yours. This is where it gets quite hairy.
Dead or Alive, as you'll no doubt surmise for yourself , is Commando done cowboy style. So if you liked that coin-op conversion you will probably lap this one up like a thirsty horse tied next to a water trough. Or something.
