Hydra
Hydra for Atari Lynx by Atari Games
Players: 1
Levels: ?
YOR: 1992
Stereo: Yes?
Someone has to be a hero, and it might as well be you. In your super-advanced speedboat, you must deliver top-secret military equipment to various parts of the world. Fame and riches await you - but so do pitfalls and danger!

That's the basic gist of Hydra. You have a job to deliver military equipment everywhere in the world, and you have to do it on rivers or oceans. You have this really cool hovercraft that can be go on water or boost up into the air. It can also be armed with a cool array of special weapons(that you have to purchase) ranging from an uzi to a nuke. You also have you basic gun which never runs out of ammo.

One of the main objects of the game is to collect money and improve your score. Money lets you buy better weapons and even equipment to enhance you craft(like a shield or a anti-grav unit). There are bonus rounds where all you do is collect bags of money while trying to avoid obstacles.

The view is taken behind your craft. Think of it as a Cybermorph view, except your not off-rails and you can't change your views. You spend most of the time crusing down rivers and sometimes oceans. There are plenty of obstacles that will impede your path, some you can destroy, others you have to quickly evade. Everything scales on the game, which looks really cool. The color is beautiful like always with the Lynx. The sprites are well-drawn as are the backgrounds. There's some to say about music/sound, basically you hear only the engine, then there's explosions and gun-fire. There is music on the bonus levels, title screen, and several static screen, and it sounds OK.

You have unlimited lives in a way, you can be killed a lot, with the only conseqence being that you loose your cargo(which ranges from many things, from nuclear devices, crown jewels and other) which will be picked up by another guy in a black vehicle that's like yours, but you can destroy him without much trouble. But, if you run out of gas(gas powerups look like green jewels) then your game is over.
RATINGS-

Graphics- A- - The animations and scaling is great, the color is as well. A little blocky though, but who really cares?

Music/Sound- B - Music isn't the greatest you'll hear on the Lynx, and the sounds are average.

Control- B+ - I think it works out. A little hard to get at first, and sometimes your craft doesn't turn out of the way of obstacles fast enough, or doesn't go fast enough to avoid an enemy shooting at you.

Difficulty-Adjustable - You can choose your difficulty, although I have to say it's not a piece of cake. I've yet to beat it on easy.

Fun Factor- B+ - It's a cool game, something I think is quite playable for a long time.

By Adam Pratt 1