::Abadox::

I'm straying away from the Sega section for a lil bit to talk about one of the nintendo games i whored the shit out of when i was a kid... Abadox. For those of you that don't know about this game, its a space shooter game just like R-Type, Gradius, ect... except it's more on the cryptic side. Lemme explain... the setting takes place in space (of course), where this princess has been taken captured to this planet. Actually, its more like she was SWALLOWED by a planet... yes, the planet is alive, and if you haven't guessed already, the "aliens" our hero is facing against are the organs, viruses, cells, and whatever else of this planet being. So with the exception of the genitalia, you pretty much go through everything in the body.

I heard about the game on a TV commercial, and when i found out that the maker of this game was Milton Bradley, it definitely got my attention. A board game company making video games? To me that was something you don't see everyday. The cover was cool too... silver outside with the picture on the inside which was mostly red (my favorite color), showing a space dude zapping at what looks like a bloody snail monster. So, what the heck... went to my local Toys'R'Us when i was still in Flushing Queens, bought the game, stuck it in my "Nintendo Built-In TV" (I'm not kidding, I really had one of those, and if i could find a pic of it online, i'd prove it), and went to town on this game. About an hour later, I stopped playing it due to the frustration of constantly getting game over, and it wasn't because I sucked at it either, it was because my patience for being stuck on Stage 2 of the game was wearing thin. But playing it now, I've actually gotten good at it to the point where i can ALMOST finish the game without getting a game over (emphasis on ALMOST). This is what i mean... Each stage has two levels, and in each level, you fight a boss. The bosses in the first level are always moving around, but each boss is unique and moves in a different pattern. The bosses in the second level are always stationary (and at times, literally attached to the ceiling, walls, floor, ect...) but they shoot more projectiles than the first level bosses, which makes sense cause these would be the MAIN bosses of the game, while the first level bosses are just merely sub-bosses. But it's not just the second level bosses that are hard, half the time its the second level itself that's a pain in the ass to get through, and by that i mean obstacles and enemies at almost every direction.

Now about the power-ups, they come in different forms but are always carried by the same blue flying thing (i seriously have no idea what to call it), so you never know what your getting until you shoot at it. Theres your standard power-ups like [S], [B], and [P]. [S] is speed, [B] is barrier (which is nothing more than a crappy yellow marshmallow that floats in circles around you and absorbs projectiles untill it turns blue and dies... good thing about the [B] though is that you can have more than one floating around you. The maximum I got is 4 but you can actually get 5 if you are good at avoiding shit without the barriers touching anything), and [P] is a "protector" that gives you a cloak that glows, letting you know that your protected from either 1 or 2 shots. Unfortunately you can only collect 2 of these. Green glow = protected once, and Pink glow = protected twice. IT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE that you get as many [P]'s and [B]'s as you possibly can, because guess what... one hit, and your dead... FROM ANYTHING. Even the friggen stage itself, meaning you cant even lean on walls without exploding. So unless you haven't done your re-search, or have never played a shooting game like this, you are going to be at the first two second levels of the first two stages for a long time, because you have to dodge between obstacles, projectiles, and even small narrow passages without touching anything. By the way, lemme go off topic for a minute and ask, why was there alot of Nintendo games with this exact problem? Silver Surfer, Contra, Super Pitfall, Transformers: Convoy no Nazo (can you tell I watch alot of AVGN, lol). They all had that "die with only one hit" program that annoyed the fuck out of everybody... well at least me anyways. I mean I think Contra was the only game that did it justice but as for the others... it just made the games "unplayable" in my opinion. Anywho, the weapon upgrades vary from a 3 way bubble shot, to a scattered shot, to a lazer, and even huge rings... for some reason, lol. The rings and lazer I've come to find are your best weapons of choice to use, the three way and scattered shots are found on the first stage but do make appearances in other later stages as well. Please to stay away from them. What's great about all the weapons though is that you can use a Missile upgrade on all of them. They come in [M] form. Grabbing one shoots missiles straight foward, but getting [M] the second time makes them follow a target to hit them. In other words, you can shoot your main weapon AND the missiles all with one button. This is VERY handy as you progress through the game.

The game consists of 6 stages all together, which may seem short at first but you'd be too busy avoiding shit and shooting things to even care about somethin like that. Stages 1, 3, and 5 are side views that follow a left to right path. Stages 2, 4, and 6 are overhead views that follow an up to down path. When you first play the game you'll notice the sound effects are familiar. Well if you've played "Special Cybernetic Attack Team", then you'll defenitely hear the same sounds in an instant. Even though Abadox came first and "S.C.A.T." was made by Natsume rather than Milton Bradley, sampling the same sound effects for different video games was a common thing. For those of you that have played Blaster Master, and Journey To Silus, you will know exactly what im talking about... specially since SunSoft made both those games. Anywho, stage 1 is straight foward, your still in space but exploring the outside of the body. Then you encounter what looks like a skeleton dog with a gun on its back. After you destroy it, you enter inside the mouth, avoiding the teeth and dripping saliva from the tongue till you encounter that slug thing on the cover of the box. Stage 2 is you moving around the circulatory system, which has parts of the muscle wall growing arms that try to grab you. After defeating some sort of one eyed worm, you enter more deep into the system, as you notice the wall starts to pulsate a little faster each time you go deeper, till you encounter a big eyeball with a mouth for eye lids. From stage 3 on, its anyone's guess as to what parts of the planet these areas represent, but this is where shit gets REALLY weird (as if things weren't weird enough). The sub-boss of stage 3 is another skeleton animal, only this time it's a hammer-head shark with its head intact, but the body is all skeleton. After you defeat that, you wind up more inside the body, fighting off what looks like white blood cells or antibodies. The boss is another eye with a mouth for eyelids only this time it's attached to an alien's stomach, and the alien itself is attached to the walls like the walls were forming a baby or somethin... yea thats the best way I can explain it. Stage 4 is just random. Your enemies are a ball of yarn that explodes, crab claws that sprout from the walls, a teddy bear inside a blue sphere that leaches onto you and slows you down if you dont shoot it first, and the sub-boss is a huge yellow spider with it's eye on its ass instead of it's head. The beginning of level 2 of stage 4 you immediately encounter the boss but since its SO LONG, you have to work it's way around it's body before you get to it's eyeball (noticing a pattern.... the eyes seem to be the weak points). I'm gonna go on a limb and say that stage 4 would be the digestive system of the planet, as the boss for stage 4 seems to be one loooooooooooong stomach with spikes protruding out of it. Stage 5 looks like something taken out of a scrapped idea for a megaman stage. The sub-boss for this stage are 3 aliens that almost look like you, and shoots the same weapon as you do while moving up and down... yea good luck with that. The boss for this stage is a giant robot that shoots a shitload of projectiles from his hands, PLUS a lazer from it's head. The last stage IS FUCKIN HARD!! Remember in Megaman 2 when trying to get to quickman's stage you had those fast instant death lazers shooting at you? Yea this stage sorta has them, not to mention while you have shit attacking you, so THIS is where your maneuvering skills are put to the test. The sub-boss is a bunch of balls with eyes. The final boss is this alien that has merged itself with some monster. The alien kinda reminds me of "Pyrom" from Darkstalkers. Anywho you rescue the princess who was conveniently trapped inside that one particular monster, so you'd think that would be the end of the game, right? Nope, it wants to fuck with us one more time by having our hero escape from the moster planet cause it's now about to explode, going through each stage he just went through at a really fast speed, avoiding obstacles, trying not to crash. Once you have successfully escape, THEN the game is over.

Over-all this game is challenging, but if thats what you are looking for, i'd recommend it. The game itself is not as gruesome as it sounds, just play it for yourself and you'll see what i mean. Good luck though, cause you will need it.