Publisher: Milton Bradley
Genre: Space Shooter
Year of Release: 1990

Date Reviewed: 1-11-98 ("Old Era")


This space shooter is one of the most bizarre I have ever played. It centers around a warrior (that looks more like an award statuette) infiltrating the body of a giant spherical creature that is apparently a threat to galactic safety or something (details of the story are somewhat sketchy, but I gather it's similar to Life Force.) While inside the creature, you attempt to shut down its major systems, thus destroying it (and freeing some girl in a bubble.) Much of the game makes little sense, but it is quite fun regardless.

Abadox is true to the style of the Gradius series, except that the player is placed in control of a humanoid figure. Numerous power-ups can be gathered while inside the creature, including various weapon adapters (my favorite being the lasers), speed power-ups, homing missiles, and these little sattelites that revolve around you, killing anything that tries to attack (I LOVE those things). Unlike the Gradius series, control is not sacrificed with the acquisition of speed power-ups. If anything, it is enhanced (the character can stop more quickly with speed power-ups than without.)

If this game suffers from any one shortcoming, it is its lack of sense. Every organism inside the giant creature has eyes, even though the beast has none on its exterior. In addition, the stages don't seem to follow any logical order. The first stage is the surface of the creature. You enter through the mouth, dodging teeth and strange tonsil-esque things. Then you fight through a long stage that could be an esophagus. After that, however, things become illogical. The third stage is some sort of jungle, with plants that shoot things at you, and it gets more bizarre from there. However, if one looks at Abadox as an aggregation of levels, and not so much as a creature's body, it is a very entertaining game.