Venus The Flytrap

Gremlin predicted this 30+ years ago!

Planet Earth is dying because of mankind's habit of breeding like bacteria and raping all its natural resources to serve our gluttony. Well, some rubbish like that anyhow... But, for this game, the over-use of pesticides has finally killed off all the bugs and left mother nature unbalanced but we have created cybernetic bugs to compensate for our stupidity. Of course, it wasn't long before they went postal so we must eliminate them all before it's too late!

This is a run and kill 'em all platformer spread over fifty levels ranging from the green forests to Death Valley. You're a mechanical bug equipped with a cannon to fight off the foes and this can be upgraded using the power-ups left behind by those crazy insects. These consists of a wide range of improvements like better firepower, silly reversible controls, and even antigrav upside-down walking being possible - and that only serves to give brain ache! Bonus rounds appear each way through a level and flip the game into an exciting shoot 'em up for extra points.

Controls are bang-on perfect with a style that is clean and responsive without ever lagging. The graphics are pretty darn beautiful with smooth scrolling and nicely animated sprites plus it's worth noting all those many extra colours which spruce up what would normally have been a boring background. The music is perfect, something I can listen to all day.

Venus The Flytrap is an extremely enjoyable platformer which has always been on my favourite list. Great game!

* I also recorded a midi version of the game's excellent theme tune.

* An awesome remastered tune by ACC:Xess which completely blows you away!

* Okay, here is a hard drive installable copy of Venus by the mighty D-Bug to download.

* Those that require a floppy disk image should check out Old Games Finder.

* Fancy some level codes? Of course, you do! Simply press the SPACEBAR on the menu screen and then ignore using that handy keyboard because they decided that the joystick would be far better to enter these codes:

     -> The Forbidden Forest...starting level

     -> The Frozen Wastes......MANTIDS

     -> The Dead City..........CICADAS

     -> Wood World.............PSYLLIDS

     -> The Kaverns............PIERIDS

     -> Death Valley...........SATYRID

     -> The Creeping Swamp.....LYCAENID

     -> Tech World.............PYRALID

     -> Translucent Plain......NOCTUID

     -> The Stygian Creek......?

* I believe these cheat codes work fine, however, I have never tried them so YMMV... enjoy:

     -> extra time.............JUPITER

     -> extra ammo.............PLUTO

     -> weapons galore.........MARS

     -> fly like superman......MERCURY

     -> unknown................SATURN