Graphics= B+Sound= B-Gameplay= B-Challenge= AOverall= B-Arcade to Home= Not Applicable.Even though this game only recently became available for sale, the strange part is this: I\'ve had this game- on cartridge- since 1998. It was an unusual situation, and occurred only shortly after I became aware that not only were there far more ColecoVision games than I ever knew of, but that, amazingly enough, there were new games for it. At that time, I knew almost nothing about "homebrew games." Cosmo Fighter 2 is a game along the lines of Gorf: you fight through several screens of enemies, facing a "boss" at the end, before starting again at the beginning, at a higher level of difficulty. When you first plug this game in, you are treated to an extremely impressive set of title screens, which include scoring, programming information, and the story behind this game. It\'s typical enough: an evil force threatens a planet (“Xunor”), and only your Cosmo Fighters can confront it. You must battle the three different waves of enemies, and then defeat their giant leader. You are given a choice of three difficulty levels to begin with, and they are Beginner (Hard), Intermediate (Harder), and Expert (Are You Serious?). Once you start the game, your multi-colored fighter appears at the bottom of the screen. It can fire several shots at once, but can only move left or right. The screen is filled with downward-scrolling stars, large flashing stars, and single-colored mini-planets, all of which scroll down in three planes, is confusing at first, but is also very beautiful. You are immediately attacked by the first wave of enemies: many small, single-colored green birds, looking somewhat like the big War birds from Phoenix, or maybe small demons. They descend by moving in a sort of unpredictable zigzag pattern, and they are not at all reluctant to shoot, albeit somewhat randomly. During this time, you are also being attacked by two other opponents: spinning golden bars that rain down from the top of the screen and swerve toward you; and a large blue craft, looking a bit like a downward-facing Millennium Falcon, which always moves swiftly from left to right across the top of the screen, dropping one VERY fast red bomb as it passes over you. These two foes continue to attack you throughout the three different attack phases, until you reach the Boss at the end of the round. This first part is rather lengthy, and you will soon discover that this is a VERY difficult game indeed...in fact, it may be a number of games before you even get past this part. Once you do manage to get past here, you encounter the next set of enemies. This is where I have some trouble with rating this game. This is an outer space battle, and although one expects some weird enemies, even the insects in Galaga have a certain logic about them. But the enemies you encounter here are really, really, REALLY strange: springs. Springs exactly like the ones from Donkey Kong. They bounce from left to right at the bottom of the screen, in a mindless fashion, hoping to smite you under them. You can shoot them or dodge them, but they are dangerous either way, especially with the blue ship and rods attacking you the whole time. Once past here, you encounter lines of purple creatures, which resemble downward facing glider-planes, which move from right to left in a sine wave, each dropping a single bomb on you as they pass overhead. After about four such attacks, several springs will also appear, making this one of the most difficult parts of the game. As before, the blue ships and rods continue to plaque you, making it a total of four enemies to contend with. Once you make it past here (not an easy thing to do), you face the game\'s Big Boss. This is a huge green hexagon, with eerie tiny golden eyes, two yellow legs at either side, and a third red leg center. It looks a bit like a child\'s play table in its basic shape. The yellow legs are able to shoot straight down, while the center leg can shoot diagonal down as well as straight down. The entire enemy moves around, and periodically comes all the way down, trying to crush you under it: sometimes straight down, sometimes diagonal down. To defeat it, you must either shoot all three legs, or avoid it long enough. Either way, it moves off the top of the screen, the playfield accelerates, and you begin again. At several points throughout the rounds, a single-colored yellow craft moves left to right across the top of the screen; shooting it yields a bonus fighter. These always come out at the same times. Since I\'ve had this game for eight years, you\'d think that rating it would be easy. It isn\'t. On the one hand, there are enough things about it that I like which prevents me from not recommending it, yet, enough about it that I don\'t like that... First of all, it is obvious that Marcel de Kogel, the programmer, is VERY competent with ColecoVision programming. The smooth-scrolling background of colorful stars occurs in not on...
