Producer: Gremlin Graphics
Retail Price: £4.99

After nuclear war, the Earth becomes inhospitable to human life and is soon populated by aliens. The human survivors retreat underground and in desperation construct an android, the Cybourg 64, to exterminate the aliens. But as each generation is destroyed, a new, brighter, more deadly strain evolves.

The Cybourg starts with six lives and an arsenal of ten mines, which he can lay around the devastated landscape; bombs, TNT and lasers are added later. Some aliens are invulnerable to particular weapons, but destroying others of course earns you points.

The letters E, X, T, R, and A appear among the constructions on the earth's surface, and can be picked up to build the word EXTRA for bonus points. But aliens can destroy the letters...

Strings of transparent bubbles give the Cybourg protection against alien attack and can be used to pen in clusters of alien eggs (harmless till hatched).

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable, four directions plus FIRE and USE required
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Use of colour: blue-and-white playing area, bright surround
Graphics: fast and detailed with effective, though slightly jerky, scrolling
Sound: a few spot FX, reasonable title tune
Skill levels: one
Screens: scrolling

Alien Evolution is an appealing game with pretty graphics; but visual appeal isn't everything. It's very well presented, and the gameplay is all there, but I got bored quite soon. Despite its high quality appearance, I see Alien Evolution as just a jazzed-up puzzle-cum-arcade game.
MIKE

I thought I'd loaded Ant Attack (an ancient-pre-CRASH - game) by mistake. Alien Evolution is graphically very similar to the likes of Ant Attack and Zombie Zombie, featuring high-class isometric graphics still good by today's standards, though the scrolling and animation aren't up to much. But Alien Evolution is also enjoyable in its own right. Playable virtually from the start, it has some nice touches - like heaving bubbles around to trap nasties. And though it pets a bit repetitive, there's enough action to keep you amused.
ROBIN

Sprites and backgrounds movesmoothly in Alien Evolution, and the aliens fairly whizz round the screen. And there's a nice tune playing on the intro screen. This game is obviously derived from Ant Attack, but that's no drawback and it's fun to play - for a while. A good buy for fans of fast-moving 3-D games.
MARK

Gremlin
£4.99

Hello little bug... Zap! - Heeheehee... Hello little -amoeba... Zap! Heeheehee. It's great fun, this. Alien Evolution's set on post nuclear-Earth and it's in a Knightlore meets Ant Attack format. It revolves round a small spacecraft called Cyborg 64. All the humans have retreated underground and all the aliens have decided that Earth is now one big adventure playground, and won't go home. They won't take a hint, and they can't be talked to, so it's up to you to wipe 'em out! (Heehee... Zap!)

This is Gremlin's second release at a cheaper price, and boy is it good! You wander round, firing at aliens, laying traps and generally acting in an inhuman way, all so's you can watch them die. Mind you, this is a bit of a problem - they don't actually die, but evolve into a higher life form, and you have to kill that too, and so on. When one level is clear, you're on to the next.

The layout's slightly Ant Attackish, as I've said, and you'll find teleporters to carry you around. Also, if you find yourself out of ammo, there are bubbles to push in front of you as a shield - these too can kill aliens. There's also a square in the game, where letters of the alphabet appear. When I stood on it the letter T flashed up then the game continued. Dunno what it meant, but it was pretty smart.

The music's good, the graphics are good and it wouldn't have been half bad at £7.95. At the price Gremlin's charging - £4.99 - it's triffic, and there's a killing to be made!