9th Place

Ultra Assault [by Small Rockets]

Our Review

Small Rockets, who created Ultra Assault barely fits into the category of an Independent Developer.  Those who give their website a look will see that there are many high quality titles available from them.  In fact, you are very likely to have seen several of the titles, including Jetboats Superchamps & Red Ace Squadron available through the "value-priced" software bin at your local computer shop, and to top that off, they have a game just about to be released for the Game Boy Advance through Activision.

Ultra Assault shows again why Small Rockets are considered to be a professional developer.  This game is flawless in execution and provides many frills in addition to high quality production values that you will find in games by Small Rockets.  Ultra Assault is the pseudo sequel to the fantastic shooter Star Monkey.  In addition to sporting a much better name than that game, it has more of the none-stop action that made Star Monkey so much fun to play in addition to the beautiful lighting effects that were the highlight of its predecessor. 

If you are good enough to get through to the last level, you are rewarded with a classic final level for a shooter, steeped in graphics running on multiple levels that make you want to put down your joystick and just watch, but of course it is the last level, and any such lapse would lead to your demise in a little less that 1 second.  If you are a shooter fan, then this game is an absolute must.

Score:  9.0