Hi there!

Continuing with classic C64 shmups, here comes DMAs sequel to Menace:

When in most shoot'em up games you're figthing for your very survival, in Blood Money you're actually cruising around killing things for entertainment. (To the video game archaeologists reading this column, I think this marks the point where Rockstar first turned politically incorrect ).

The player books a safari, visiting the most dangerous places in the universe. All four of them. Of course, with only 4 levels, I need not mention extra that they've been made damn hard.

They're quite varied in graphics, and even the players craft changes with the scenery. E.g. he's flying a helicopter in the first level and controlling a submarine in the second. To the gameplay it has no effect at all though, even the extra weapons stay the same.

It is basially "shoot everything that moves, buy extra weapons, fight endbosses". Overall it's clearly a step up from Menace and a pretty solid experience, but even back in the day it wasn't exactly pushing the boundaries of the genre.

The C64 conversion is pretty good and very playable. The brittish programmers finally learned a lesson here, making it a multi-load, so in addition to the graphics boost, there's also different songs to enjoy. The SID music is pretty good, but no match for the incredible Amiga soundtrack from Ray Norrish.

So did I beat it? Yup, using plenty of state-saving I certainly made it through

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see DMAs next shoot'em up in the form of "Walker", but first it'll continue with something else.

Greetings,

Manuel