Sophélie

Bums and Boobs!

Sophelie was once a goddess of heaven, but has since been vanquished and left to roam the lands searching for her body. What? Why? Well, some kind soul has turned her into an albatross, so she now spends time flying through worlds looking to find her original appearance. As storylines go, this is silly, to say the least!

This is a horizontally scrolling shooter, not too dissimilar to Menace. This time, we're not killing monsters or aliens, but some of the weirdest things you might never have expected: planets, snowmen, wolf heads, eyeballs, and even trees. The landscapes are lush with colour, and even angels will regularly appear to help.

Sounds great, right? Well, let's take a look at some screenshots from the first level...

Yep, giant eyeballs are coming for you and are actually tough to kill, too!

Now, this is getting silly! What have the trees ever done to you?

Let's kill the planet? No, literally by shooting down the rotating planet Earth!!

Spit, don't shoot!

We begin with the hand of God safely delivering us, ready for battle. The levels are split into segments, with each having its own brand of baddies all too eager to see you dead. The controls are fast and responsive, and a joy to control without any lag. The gameplay is fast and exciting as each enemy will swarm onto the screen using its unique attack pattern. Some shoot at you, like the Earth enemies firing mini-planets. Cool.

Some of the nasties are easy to kill, whereas others are impossible, thanks to the slow rate at which we can shoot. This makes killing certain enemies tough because they move too quickly in comparison to our fire rate. Dying can be a bit troublesome, especially when you materialise close to an enemy and therefore instantly die once again. A simple invulnerability effect could have been utilised for a second or two!!

Angels visit after each segment with power-ups, which are essential from the start. Miss them, and the following swarm of enemies is quite impossible to defeat. Also, dying baddies might sometimes throw out an extra power-up, but these fall off the screen before you've had a chance to even think about collecting them. Finally, there is a time limit ticking down to kill each wave of baddies. Very peculiar, to say the least.

Let's end the whining and take a look at some screenshots from the second world...

Some of the sprites are freaky... freaky-cool!

I can't make out whether these are balloons or floating severed heads!

Damn snowmen, they all deserve to die!! O_o

Aesthetics?

Visually, I like the colourful palettes, funky sprites racing across the screen, and smooth parallax scrolling running at a brisk pace. I love the level of detail that's gone into the sprite's artwork. Sophelie's animation is superb, and never have I played a game with such a wacky variety of different enemies. They're quite insane!!

Sadly, the audio is disappointing with a fuzzy tune and near-silent gameplay. Well, apart from the death-killing sound effect and a strange background whistle. It's shocking because the YM is far more capable.

Well, that was a mixed bag, alright, so let's take a peep at the third world...

These are insanely difficult to kill, if not impossible, without losing all your lives!

He's big. He's bad. He's about to be brown bread!!

Hey, a power-up appears from a dying beast, yet you have no chance of collecting it!

The CryptO'pinion?

This isn’t a terrible shoot 'em up. The colourful levels and impressive baddies zipping across the screen create a constant action-packed experience. Plus, the occasional appearance of angels with gifts to boost your chances of victory adds a nice touch. Sadly, it’s also one of the most boring shooters I’ve played. While the graphics might change, the gameplay constantly remains the same. And then there's the audio... Ugh, terrible!

Technically superb, but it’s an understatement to say there are better Atari ST shooters. Sophelie looks nice, but sounds awful and is very repetitive. While there are boobies, I’m not convinced it’s worth playing.

If you're curious, then grab the floppy disk at Atari Legend. Enjoy...

Oh no, another grisly death beautifully laid out. Interesting artwork!