Day 12: Action 52 Friday with Star Evil

Didn't anyone tell the Action 52 guys that a shoot 'em up space game is only as good as its made up, alien-sounding name? There's no way something called Star Evil could ever hope to stand up next to classics like Galaga and Zaxxon.

It doesn't help that Star Evil had to fit on the Action 52 cart with 51 other games. The whole game probably used something like 17 lines of code.


Star Evil is a vertical-scrolling shoot the other ships and don't crash into the walls game done on the cheap. The only obstacles that kill 100% of the time are the large blocks, which is unfortunate since every level seems to start with your ship directly behind two of them. Some enemy ships can be flown through and destroyed with no damage to yours and the walls sometimes forgive transgressions.

Stage bosses move randomly, sometimes lingering forever in places you can't get to them. And rather than die in a glorious explosion, they simply vanish and the next level begins.

Despite its glitches, Star Evil is functional and actually looks decent, which is probably the nicest thing I'll ever be able to say about any of the Action 52 games.