Genre: Shooter
Developer: Studio 3DO
Publisher: Studio 3DO

The sprite-driven Captain Quazar, played from a 3/4 overhead perspective, features a combination of detailed hand-drawn tiles for the stages and pre-rendered CGI characters for the protagonist and baddies. There are some nice explosion effects, variable lighting in dark locations, and some complex (and hilarious) FMV cut-scenes between missions.

Burke Treischmann puts forth yet another one of the solid soundtracks he is well known for; wild and crazy country-themed melodies tailored for the mines, deserts, and jungle worlds the player visits throughout the adventure, which manage to be energetic but not too grating. As clear and clean as the music is, the sound effects match, with some excellent voice acting to top off the package.

The game involves exploring massive levels from an isometric perspective while blasting baddies and achieving the goals of the level. Each cluster of enemies has a corresponding barracks and destroying these will prevent enemy respawn, and passcodes can be acquired to use teleporters strewn about the maps. There are different types of ammunition, grenades, and other goodies, and the game has a nice, quality feel to it. The downsides involve not enough variance in the flow of the gameplay, and the fact that the camera is too close to the player.

I like Captain Quazar; it's quick moving, has a nice sense of humor, involves a lot of exploration, and has plenty of variety in its level themes. There is a two-player cooperative mode, but because of how close the camera is to the action, it just makes it easier to walk into the baddies and their bullets. Some slower, puzzle-oriented segments as well would have gone a long ways towards making a good game better.