Compatible emulators

Synopsis

Phoenix is ​​the challenger to Galaxian released in 1979. It is a legend that has fallen into oblivion because it has not benefited from as many recent ports as its competitor. Besides the fact that the aliens are not insectoids but avian creatures (piafs, that is!), Phoenix is ​​illustrated by the presence of the first activatable shield in the history of shmups. The downside of this shield is that it immobilizes the ship.

The game is broken down into 5 rounds. The first 2 include small piafs, the next 2 large piafs emerging from their eggs whose wings can be destroyed without killing them (the wings grow back after a while), then a round with the mothership. The mothership is particularly original: you have to dig a tunnel towards the boss using shots. Once the tunnel has been dug, you still have to defeat a rotating barrier (which can be changed more quickly by shooting the thin, outer part of the base) before you can kill the boss. Once the boss is defeated, the game resumes in round 1 with different and more aggressive alien motifs. The game is therefore ultra-repetitive, like most games of the time and less attractive than Galaxian.

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