The P’radikus Conflict
System: NES
Release Date: 1990
Developer: Color Dreams
Publisher: Color Dreams
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
It’s you vs. several fleets of enemy star ships in the P’radikus Conflict. The advanced, peaceful Lextorian race visited the planet of the uncivilized P’radikus and its warlike peoples. The Lextorians were wiped out thanks to their pacifist nature and over time the natives of P’radikus learned how to pilot the left over star ships. They’ve looted and plundered the galaxy spreading their reach far and wide. On the edges of your solar neighbors, it’s up to you and you alone to destroy the P’radikus ships, bases, and home world.
Gameplay takes place with a top down view. You can thrust forward by holding up, maneuver by pressing left or right, and come to a stop by pressing down. Enemies fly on screen and you can shoot at them with your cannons with the A Button. They’ll fly right at you, or at an angle, or they’ll zoom around on the edge of the screen. Your first mission is to kill enemies and amass credits to power up your shields and warp drives. I found it easiest to sit in one spot and rotate around shooting everything that came on screen. Your fuel depletes as you are in space, so if I were to play again, I’d sit on top of a gas giant, which you can siphon fuel from, and kill until I maxed my systems out.
Once you meet the requirements, you can press the Select Button and access the computer. Here you can look at the map, set your destination, warp to a different system, and check out your current mission. The second mission has you warping to a different system and seeking out an enemy base to destroy. You have to blast it enough to destroy it, then land on the surface, which consists of you destroying specific gun turrets to disable the whole station.
There are secondary weapons that can be activated with the B Button. I only equipped and tried the missile, as they were expensive and my credit levels were always pretty low. If you die, you can continue from where you left off, but lose credits, probably about half. I continued a few times before I decided this wasn’t really worth my or anyone’s time.
Graphics: 1.5
Space is barren. The enemy ships have the ability to look neat.
Sound: 0.5
There is no music, only pew pews.
Gameplay: 1.5
The space flying works, although it’s very finicky. There’s not a whole lot to do other than shoot enemies coming on screen.
Difficulty: 1.0
As long as you keep your fuel up and take breaks long enough for your shield to recharge, you should be fine.
Fun Factor: 0.5
As barren as the darkness of space.
Overall Grade: 1.0
The P’radikus Conflict earns a D. There were some alright ideas lifted from Starflight, but implemented poorly and without any depth.