Game Review: Viper III (ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic)

Sideways Scrolling Shoot em’ up

Viper III is a horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up. The screen moves from right-to-left, so the enemy also approach and attack from the left.

Your spaceship can only move up, down or fire.  As the instructions say, you really do need manoeuvre your way through the enemy as missiles are fired across the screen at quite a rapid pace.  There are quite a few of them and these can’t be shot through either, so they do need avoiding.

Lives and Strength

You have three spaceships and a limited amount of strength.  Strength is displayed in the bottom right-hand corner by a light blue and red bar.  The more you use your lazer, the more it depletes your energy and gradually see it turning black.  If you want to get far into the game, then auto-fire really isn’t an option here, so use the lazer wisely!

Graphics

The enemy ships and planes are all well-defined and move well.  The buildings and mountains in the far distance also move along quite well.  Considering the sprites within the main playing area of the screen are shifting at a reasonable pace, the non-playing area at the top of the screen adds additional depth.  When you do shoot and enemy, there is a quick explosion which looks good and obviously if you get hit, the same also applies to you too.

Later levels also flash red and sometimes go black which really ramps up the difficulty level for a couple of seconds.  When the screen goes dark for a couple of seconds, it’ll keep you on your toes and may need to manoeuvre out of the way to avoid being struck.

The loading screen is neatly drawn with a large spaceship and planet in the background.

Playability

The movement of your ship is always vertical and facing to the left and the keys are responsive.  Your spacecraft doesn’t move too quickly but it is set at the right level.  Any faster and it may have been too jerky and difficult to control and if it were any slower, would have been too difficult to manoeuvre around missiles and the enemy.  As you’d expect, as the game progresses, the waves of enemies do change.  The formation of how they move and shoot also varies too.

The collision detection is very impressive.  A hell of a lot is moving on the screen all at once for most of the time and at a fair pace.  The only minor issue was when you try and shoot through the four blocks to aim at the three base defences near the end of each wave.  Your spaceship can seem to hit the wall if you are a small distance away from it, but it certainly isn’t a deal breaker.

Regaining Strength

After the three bases have been destroyed after each level and you move around the blocks it leaves behind, you will see a gas truck.  To gain back your strength, you need to dock the front into the opening.  The game slows down a bit here and this part is extremely easy to do.  In this respect, I feel this part could have been a little bit faster as there’s no real skill to it and just feels like a formality.

Sound Effects Only

There is no music in Viper III but the sound effects aren’t too bad.  They aren’t the best I’ve ever heard but by no means the worst either.  When you shoot an enemy, there is a noise and when you fire, there is also some sound.  Before you get to the end of each level there is a beep for around a second to signify that you are reaching the end of the level.

I think a tune could have been added to the opening screen but there isn’t one.

Final Thoughts

The only other comparable side-scrolling game of that time which comes to mind was the rather excellent Penetrator by Beam Software (released by Melbourne House).  Although that is a far better game, bear in mind Viper III was only £1.99!

Viper III is also keyboard only.  I feel this may well be down to the age of the game and joysticks only just becoming available as an additional peripheral device to The ZX Spectrum.  After all, I remember after that I never owned my Kempston joystick until a couple of years into having the computer!

Also, I wonder what ever happened to Viper I and Viper II…  Maybe Viper III sounded better?

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