Granada
System: Genesis
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Wolf Team/Cube
Publisher: Renovation Products
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Get in a super powerful tank in Granada! No, we’re not talking about the small Caribbean island, we’re talking about a shoot ‘em up on the Sega Genesis. The world gave up ICBMs and nuclear warheads in the 1990s, thank goodness, but the world still loves weapons. Enter Granada, the Hypertek-Cannon Tank. An unintelligible story puts you in the cockpit and puts you through nine levels of destruction.
Your tank moves in whatever direction you press. The A Button shoots in the direction you’re moving. If you want to keep your cannon in one direction, hold the B Button and you can move independently of the direction of your cannon. The C Button discharges a super powerful blast that you need to remember to use in order to destroy bosses quickly.
There is a radar that shows you the location of enemies that must be destroyed, with a red dot. You have a time limit that you have to defeat everyone by or you lose a life. You don’t want to lose a life. You have a pretty hefty health bar, as well, but it drains pretty quickly if you aren’t careful. I tend to find myself shooting in a direction while moving. There are obstacles that must be avoided, as well.
You can find a number of options sitting around the level. These are slightly useful, but it’s hard to tell what they do and the manual isn’t super helpful in this regard. The first level option seems to reflect shots, but will explode when hit too much. The plane level has a number of homing missiles that you can collect. Then the rest of them were ambiguous at best at what they did for me.
Once you kill all the red dots, you unlock the boss battle. Hopefully you have some of those super blasts left, because they can help you kill the bosses quick. Otherwise, you had better learn the pattern and be really good. I made it to level 7’s boss when I got the game over and decided that was good enough for me.
Graphics: 1.5
Certainly doesn’t look like a 16-bit game, everything is small and not detailed.
Sound: 2.0
Music is alright, but not really that great.
Gameplay: 2.5
Spinning the cannon is kind of difficult. It doesn’t feel very smooth overall.
Difficulty: 2.5
Levels aren’t the worst, but they do get difficult and there are no ways to replenish your health except by dying.
Fun Factor: 2.0
I was having an alright time, but it sure didn’t keep me too engaged.
Overall Rating: 2.1
Granada earns a C. It’s an alright game, but I didn’t really like it very much. You may find some enjoyment in there.