BY ADAM THOMPSON

In a surprise move at CES, Imagic announced that it plans to support the Odyssey² game system. Their first offering, a conversion of the award-winning game Demon Attack, is quite possibly the best Odyssey² cartridge on the market today.

Demon Attack can be played by one or two people. Each player begins the game with four ships that are controlled with the joystick. Moving the stick moves your ship, and pressing the red action button fires a missile. In addition to the standard game, there are many options. Some variations include steerable shells and switching the control between the two players in the middle of a game.

When you have chosen the desired game option, two bomb-dropping attackers appear; one above the other. To advance to the next screen, the trick is to kill the uppermost one first, and then the alien on the bottom. The lower attacker is a guard that trails your every move. It sacrifices itself in an attempt to save the other alien. If you shoot the guard first, it is promptly replaced.

After you dispose of a group of multicolored attackers, a different set appears. Each type of alien has strange new characteristics and behavior patterns. As you battle deeper into the game, the aliens fight much more fiercely and increase the rate at which they drop bombs.

The thing that sets Demon Attack apart from the other games available for the Odyssey² is the outstanding graphics. The winged aliens that plague the sky are colorful and nicely animated. The one thing that I don't like is that when you fire a shot, it disappears momentarily at the center of the screen, and then rematerializes. Other than this, the graphics in Demon Attack are of the professional quality gamers have come to expect from Imagic.

By introducing Demon Attack, Imagic has become the first third-party software manufacturer for the Odyssey². Up until this point, only N.A.P. Consumer Electronics has designed programs for their game machine. It is ironic to note that Imagic has, on their first try, produced the best arcade game for the system to date. If you own an Odyssey², you can't afford to be without Demon Attack from Imagic. Also look for Atlantis, Imagic's second creation for the Odyssey².

SOFTWARE PROFILE Name: Demon Attack Type: Arcade System: Odyssey2 Format: Cartridge Summary: A must have Price: $34.95 Manufacturer: Imagic, 20665 4th St. Saratoga, CA 95070

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