Mega SWIV

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MegaSWIV MDTitleScreen.png

Mega SWIV
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Time Warner Interactive
Developer:
Genre: Shoot-'em-Up

















Release Date RRP Code

Mega SWIV is a shoot-'em-up developed by Sales Curve Interactive in 1995 and published by Time Warner Interactive exclusively in Europe for the Sega Mega Drive. It is an extended port of the 1992 Super Nintendo game Super SWIV (also known as Firepower 2000) and the sequel to the original SWIV for home computers.

Plot

Tests of prototype military airships near Bermuda end in disaster as the airships vanish; in reality, an underground race capture the airships and use their technology to build a new, unstoppable army powered by computer drones — an army that no nation's army can match. And it is up to the player to stop it.

Gameplay

B fires a single shot and can be held down for rapidfire. A cycles between a variety of weapons. C uses a special weapon that can be collected in levels. Weapons are powered up by collecting more from the same type. Each weapon has seven power levels. From the main menu, hitting A, B, or C allows access to a configuration menu which brings up the choice between playing as a helicopter (which will not be blocked by obstacles) or a tank (which can turn to aim in any direction but must actually complete the turn and stop firing before the gun sets in the new position).

The Jeep had the ability to jump in the original SNES release, a feature omitted from this version. Instead the jeep can no run over most obstacles that required a jump in the original.

Mega SWIV features an all new stage (stage 1, with the desert stage from the original becoming stage 2), not seen in any other iterations of the game.

Weapons

  • "Bullet" - default weapon, actually looks like rockets, gainst a small spread when powered up
  • "Flame" - Flamethrower
  • "Plasma" - up to 5 way blue spreadshot (almost identical to Twin Cobra)
  • "Laser" - piercing laser attack
  • "Ionic" - Split Shot (splits into two shots on contact)
  • Special Weapons: homing missiles, circular bomb, straight rockets
  • J Shot (counts as special weapon, last stage only, "J" likely stands for "Jedi", a reference to Star Wars)

Comparison with Super SWIV

It is widely thought that Mega SWIV was rushed to meet a deadline, as the game is not as fully optimised for Mega Drive hardware as seemingly planned.

Stage 3 (Jungle), for example loads a complete but largely unused 16-colour palette into memory, while pieces of scrap metal in the scenery appear to have been given the wrong palette line, causing them to appear dark grey with odd green spots. Assigning the unused palette to this metal causes it to look more natural, with a gradient metallic shading. Many deign oversights, such as only a few flying enemies having shadows, also exist.

Also noticable is that enemy behaviours and sizes (e.g. the black jets) weren't recreated faithfully, causing Mega SWIV to become the easier game.

Physical Scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
80 №40, p90
87 №26, p65
76 №10, p15
87 №29, p50/51/52/53
59 №1995/04, p84[1]
66 №29, p82/83[2]
82 №50, p88/89
66 №15, p84
64 №65, p48/49
79 №43, p56
92 №49, p11
Sega Mega Drive
 76
Based on
11 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
50
[3]
Consoles + (FR)
80
[4]
GamesMaster (UK) PAL
87
[5]
Games World: The Magazine (UK) PAL
76
[6]
Hobby Consolas (ES)
86
[7]
MAN!AC (DE) PAL
49
[8]
Mega (UK) PAL
87
[9]
Mega Force (FR) PAL
76
[10]
Mega Fun (DE) PAL
59
[1]
Megazin (SI)
68
[11]
Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL
66
[2]
Player One (FR)
82
[12]
Play Time (DE)
60
[13]
Power Up! (UK)
70
[14]
Power Unlimited (NL)
73
[15]
Sega Magazine (UK) PAL
66
[16]
Sega Power (UK) PAL
64
[17]
Sega Pro (UK) PAL
79
[18]
Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL
92
[19]
Todo Sega (ES)
85
[20]
Tricks 16 bit (RU)
79
[21]
Última Generación (ES)
78
[22]
Video Games (DE) PAL
52
[23]
Sega Mega Drive
 72
Based on
23 reviews

Mega SWIV

Mega Drive, EU
MegaSWIV MD EU Box.jpg
Cover
MegaSWIV MD EU Cart.jpg
Cart
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 File:MegaFun DE 1995-04.pdf, page 84 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:MegaFun DE 1995-04.pdf_p84" defined multiple times with different content
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 File:MeanMachinesSega29UK.pdf, page 82 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:MeanMachinesSega29UK.pdf_p82" defined multiple times with different content
  3. ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 178
  4. ↑ Consoles +, "Février 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 90
  5. ↑ GamesMaster, "February 1995" (UK; 1995-01-22), page 65
  6. ↑ Games World: The Magazine, "April 1995" (UK; 1995-0x-xx), page 15
  7. ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Marzo 1995" (ES; 1995-xx-xx), page 98
  8. ↑ MAN!AC, "04/95" (DE; 1995-03-08), page 63
  9. ↑ Mega, "February 1995" (UK; 1995-01-xx), page 50
  10. ↑ Mega Force, "Février 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 77
  11. ↑ Megazin, "Letnik 3, Številka 5, Maj 1995" (SI; 1995-xx-xx), page 37
  12. ↑ Player One, "Février 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 88
  13. ↑ Play Time, "4/95" (DE; 1995-03-08), page 105
  14. ↑ Power Up!, "Saturday, March 11, 1995" (UK; 1995-03-11), page 1
  15. ↑ Power Unlimited, "Jaargang 3, Februari 1995" (NL; 1995-01-25), page 34
  16. ↑ Sega Magazine, "March 1995" (UK; 1995-02-15), page 84
  17. ↑ Sega Power, "April 1995" (UK; 1995-02-16), page 48
  18. ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1995" (UK; 1995-02-23), page 56
  19. ↑ Sonic the Comic, "14th April 1995" (UK; 1995-04-01), page 11
  20. ↑ Todo Sega, "Abril 1995" (ES; 1995-0x-xx), page 46
  21. ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 164
  22. ↑ Última Generación, "Abril 1995" (ES; 1995-0x-xx), page 90
  23. ↑ Video Games, "4/95" (DE; 1995-03-22), page 94
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