Battleship, who hasn't played ''The Classic Navel Combat Game''? And it now has it's own video game....to bad it's only average. Before I start this review I'd want to say that this is a strategy game, not a puzzle game like it says on the game info page. Okay, on to the review!
STORY
Don't know if there is a story, you take control of the Blue fleet as you try and stop the enemy fleet ( Red fleet sounds better actually ) from doing any harm.
GAMEPLAY
The main game takes place on a over head view. Now the game will allow each of your ships and the enemy ships to move only once per ''turn'', this may sound simple but the game will only allow you a limited amount of turns each scenario ( stage if you want ). So alot of thinking has to go into each decision, one wrong move and you might of already failed the mission, which really screws with the fun factor of the game. There's also a rader to help navigate through the sea, the normal rader will detect any ship that hasn't come into view, and the sonar will help you see where the mines are planted ( I suggest using the sonar most of the time ). Now once you go into battle with another ship the view changes to a first-person mode and exchange firepower with the enemy. Almost all the time it's not really sure if you or the enemy is going to win in these battles, you can easily hit there ship but when they fire at you, you don't even know if the enemies shot is gonna hit you. But the size and firepower of your ship will help differ the odds, example: if you have a large ship with great fire power going up against a small weak ship, then you chances of victory is high, and vice-versa. Now if you go up against a submarine or try to destroy a mine, the view changes to a side view mode so you can see the mine or submarine. It's not as easy because you have to guess the depth of which to drop your bombs ( I don't know what they're called ) under water, and you only get one chance cause your ship is moving along as you do this and you only have a limited amount of bombs. Now all of this could've turned out to be a good experience, but again the limited amount of turns you get boggles down the fun.
GRAPHICS
Disappointing. The graphics are plain looking and looks like this game could've been done on the Game Gear. I'm not saying they're horrible just disappointed since the Genesis can do better.
SOUND/MUSIC
Not much sounds or music in the game, a couple of fire shots here and there and at least 3 or 4 music scores in the game which don't sound that good.
REPLAY VALUE
This game can get really hard due to the limited turns you get for each mission. And the enemy fleet can get on your nerves with the computer cheating ( it takes me 3 or 4 takes to turn my ship completely around while it takes the enemy one try! ). If you don't like the normal game then you can always play the classic battleship game also included!
OVERALL
It's not much fun overall due to the flaws I listed above ( but mostly the limited turns you get ) and near hard missions.
Overall Rating: 5/10