Game Review: Silkworm (Atari ST, Virgin Mastertronic)

While the likes of US Gold, Elite, and other publishers rushed to secure the rights to covert some of the big name arcade titles to home formats from the likes of Capcom, Konami, Sega and Atari, it meant that some of the lesser known games were often overlooked. this allowed Virgin Mastertronic to come along and snap up the rights to games like Silkworm to bring them to a hungry market, wanting to experience arcade hits without the need to empty their pockets of change. But how well would Tecmo’s side-scrolling shoot-em-up fare on the Atari ST?

Silkworm – The Game

While many of its peers at the time were futuristic sci-fi shooters (and arguably much easier when dealing with powerups from a creative point of view), Silkworm adopted a contemporary setting despite sticking to the usual tropes of following the need to shoot everything that moves (or doesn’t), get to the end of each level, take out the boss and move onto the next.

However, Silkworm offered a novel twist on the genre. When games of this ilk provided two player options, the second player usually took control of another identical vehicle, usually with just minor cosmetic differences or a few tweaks to its weapon systems. Instead, here each player has the choice of controlling a heavily armed helicopter or jeep giving much greater choice and infact an extra layer of replayability and variety.

When you do play in two player mode, each controls a different vehicle and each has their own strengths and weaknesses. As with most in the genre, powerups are dropped from mini-bosses you’ll encounter along each stage, shields (released from destroying ground based targets) and smart bombs that destroy everything on screen (collecting a second shield when you already have on in use).

I See Silkworms Everywhere…

Silkworm, like many other arcade games released under the Virgin Mastertronic label, was actually released several times at retail by the company.  Originally released by Virgin Mastertronic as a full-priced “big box” title, it eventually saw a budget re-release twice, first on the 16-Blitz label and later on the Tronix range. It’s frustrating for completists, but at least it made it relatively easy for people to find it long after it was irst released!

Taking Flight On The Atari ST

Obviously comparisons are going to be made with the arcade and other versions of the game. On the visual side, The Atari ST does a commendable job with the graphics and while it’s not as colourful or detailed as the arcade original, everything is clearly defined, the parallax scrolling moves quite smoothly, and the action doesn’t slow down at all during gameplay – essential for any arcade shooter.

Onto the sound and there’s an decent tune on the title screen, but in-game is limited to just effects only. However, this is something that did impress me, especially compared with the arcade and Amiga version that I played recently… When taking on the sub and main bosses, as your shots hit them, the sound effect that plays gradually increases in pitch until they are destroyed. It’s only a small thing, but it’s a great way to give player feedback on how close you are to destroying them without the need to use an on screen damage meter.

Playability

Granted, the gameplay in Silkworm isn’t particularly original and as a gamer you’re spoiled for choice in the genre. While vertically scrolling shoot-em-ups are more common, there are still enough side-scrollers to keep you occupied, so this really needs to stand out or at least be above average to keep your attention. And frankly, the only thing new that Silkworm offers to the player is the jeep option. When playing as the jeep – either as a single player or opting to use this in two player, it did remind me of one of my personal arcade favourites Moon Patrol, although the controls are not as refined or fluid so when playing a single player game I tended to stick with the helicopter.

On a positive note though, the Atari ST version is a LOT more forgiving than the arcade original. Not only are you less likely to be attacked unexpectedly from behind, but it’s also slightly slower which is a welcome relief in the bullet hell sections, making it a much more enjoyable experience. In fact, it’s better than the Amiga version in this respect as well which tries to match the pacing of the arcade version and in all honesty I found that to be too harsh on the player.

However, despite this tweak to the gameplay, its too repetetive overall and bland to be all that exciting in the long term as I’ll explain…

Longevity

I mentioned repetitive gameplay and that’s the biggest problem with Silkworm – both in the arcades and all of the home versions. Once you have completed the first two stages, the end of level bosses keep repeating with the exception of the final stage in the underground metal complex. This lack of variety – with the exception of the changing attack patterns and occasional new craft you encounter during the stages themselves, takes away a lot of the incentive to keep playing.

This is a real issue with the design of the game itself and this is no fault of the ST port – it’s from the arcade original so the blame lies solely with Tecmo. Once you’ve figured out the attack patterns of the two bosses (both of which are pretty easy to defeat) the only real challenge throughout the game comes from the later stages as the game changes from a regular side-scrolling shooter into a bullet-hell shooter. It then becomes more frustrating than anything else, and combining that with the lack of variety beyond the background graphics, and it takes away any desire to return to it.

Overall

I love arcade shoot-em-ups and it’s my go-to game genre, no matter what system I use and I had high hopes foe Silkworm. Granted, it is a good conversion of Tecmo’s arcade original, and with the tweaks made for the ST it actually improves on the gameplay, but deep down it’s still the same bland shooter. There’s just not enough variety beyond the background visuals and attack waves to give you the incentive to keep going through to the end. It’s the best of the 16-bit versions, but that’s not much consolation.

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