Abadox: The Deadly Inner War (NES review)

Developer: Natsume
Publisher: Milton Bradley
Released: 1990

Abadox: The Deadly Inner War is a shoot-em-up that was only released on the NES in North America.

+ Stage design is excellent and the narrow corridors evoke feelings of claustrophobia that lead to intense battles.

+ Mixes in both horizontally and vertically scrolling levels, with the latter being a rare case of moving down the screen.

+ Nice array of weaponry available and the game does a good job of making you feel powerful when at max armoury.

+ Music is excellent with some energetic / memorable tunes, and the SFX feature some satisfying explosions.

- Like Gradius (1985, Arcade), losing a life means having your power-ups stripped away, which usually means Game Over.

- There's an enormous amount of slowdown, with boss battles being particularly affected due to too many bullet sprites.

- Art style is rather unimaginative, as it borrows heavily from both Contra (1988, NES) and Life Force (1987, NES).