Hi there!

I certainly could never resist checking out the C64 conversion of a Taito Arcade:

In this case it would've been for the better though

While still playable, Soldier of Light suffered a lot from being a typical Brittish production, i.e. it was forced into a single tape load. That meant cramming the whole arcade at once into 64K, cutting stuff until it fitted.

The end result is a rushed, unpolished jump'n'shoot with 3 different themed, very short levels, that are taking turns with a lame space shoot'em up bonus scene. The time limit on the levels is under 2 minutes, so in theory the whole game is to be beaten in 8-9 minutes

Of course the developers made it hard to get there by throwing a lot of enemies into your path. The graphics are substandard as well, so about the best aspect of the game is the solid (albeit nothing special) music from Maniacs of Noise.

Well, using state saving it took less then an hour to beat this game, receiving yet another generic "Mission Completed" message.

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see another Taito Arcade conversion in the form of "New Zealand Story", but first it'll continue with something else.

Greetings,

Manuel