Battleship: Surface Thunder

bshipBattleship: Surface Thunder is actually two games in one. The first game is the classic Battleship (the board game) and the other a new “arcade” version that is very similar to Overboard. The classic game pits you against one to three computer or human opponents. You can play against humans by the “hot-seat” method or via a network connection. Gameplay is very fast against the AI. In fact, you may wonder whether the computer player is cheating, as you never seem to develop a lead in the game. Whenever you sink an opponent’s ship, the computer will immediately score a hit on one of yours.

Not wanting to let a decent engine go to waste, Hasbro has also developed a secondary arcade game. You become a ship captain tasked with maneuvering a rather battleship through a series of rivers. There will be plenty of things to destroy as numerous ships, planes, and shore batteries attempt to blast you out of the water. You drive your ship from a third-person view, and the joystick controls rate of speed, direction, weapon choice, and firing. You can shoot both in front of your ship and sideways.

308284-battleship-surface-thunder-windows-screenshot-exploding-anAs you proceed through each level, you can pick up rubber rafts that generate power-ups, earn you points, or open up other levels. Power-ups consist mostly of enhancements for the ship such as increased speed, extra life or new weapons. Each of the over 20 levels is associated with some form of mission, but blasting everything in site into little teeny bits will get you through most of the levels. In the end, the arcade portion of Surface Thunder is possibly the better reason to pick it up, though the kind of gameplay offered in it is simple and dumb, which may or may not be what you’re looking for.


System Requirements: Pentium 133 MHz, 32 MB RAM, Win95

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