F E A T U R E S

Campaign

A compelling single player story driven play-though:
The story mode guides the player through all the games exciting features one at a time, trying not to bore or overwhelm. Its a balancing act. Each of the 50+ levels is a new challenge, introducing a new kind of battle, target, weapon or environment. Some levels at the start will be very easy to complete and unlock the next one, but achieving the full three paw rating will be more of a challenge and will require multiple attempts.

Starting in a quiet backwater, war soon threatens the Mammoths:
The first sector of 12 levels will be as part of the Mammoth Deep Space Mining Corp, a rough bunch of mammoths who spend their time in the planar asteroid fields on the edge of the galaxy. These missions will gently introduce the most important aspects of the game, although they are not training missions, there is a separate mammoth school sector for the tutorial. All the mining missions will be on 2D maps and feature one mammoth ship to control and simpler weapons. The first couple of missions are tag and crack work; tag selected asteroids with markers and crack them with mining explosives. After not long bandit mammoths present a problem that needs resolving and a more sinister plot is discovered, war is likely to result.

When war does break out, things get tricky fast:
The war missions are more demanding, with multiple ships to a squad, tactics become more important and the introduction of fully 3D levels adds another dimension to the game-play (obviously). Further types of environment keep things changing, as do escort and convoy attack missions and rocket turrets and bases. Its here we first meet the deadly cruisers, large armoured ships that can fire two shots per turn.

The war extends to other nations:
With blue and yellow mammoths dragged into the conflict, the missions become highly tactical affairs as three or four teams fight together. The war will only be won if suitable alliances can be formed and then one by one the enemy nations defeated. Ending in a suitable boss-style battle, this should feel like a significant achievement.

Mammoth Games:
Following the wars the nations of mammoth decided to hold gladiatorial games to resolve disputes, preventing further conflict. These games are an excuse for pure dual style battles, played over multiple rounds with scoring within the story mode. Expect each level to be harder than the last and the final battles to be extremely tough just to win, let alone score a top rating.

Multi-Player

Four players fight:
Up to four players can fight each other, or the computer can step in if numbers are low. The multi-player games are played out over a number of turns with scores awarded for kills, hit accuracy and winning each round.

Battle your way:
Multi-player games are played by selecting a game type, which in turn sets the game up with a given play style - so if you are all about skill and accuracy of aiming, then sniper mode is for you; limited crazy weapons, limited movement, small ships (small targets) and a whole load of skill needed to win. Or at the other end of the spectrum, there is a mode of totally over-the-top explosive games; extra weapons, larger ships and explosions. If there isn't a mode that suits your taste, you can set-up a custom game exactly as you want it, you can even change the gravity strength or force a certain type of scenario.

Weapons

Variety
Each weapon is distinct, each is useful in different circumstances. There are four types of weapon: Guns, Cannon, Rockets and Bombs, as well as utilities (heal team, shield, hyperspace etc).

Cannon:
Cannons are a standard weapon, set the direction and speed of the shot and you are good to go. The faster the shot is, the smaller and less damaging the projectile, so if you are skilful, you will be able to score more damage with low powered shots - although you will find these harder to aim. Cannons do most of their damage from a direct hit, they have a small explosive splash damage effect. Advanced cannons include the triple cannon, a three shot spread firing cannon and the deadly antimatter cannon.

Rockets:
Rockets do more damage than cannons, but are harder to aim. The rocket accelerates in the direction it is moving, so you often have to aim quite off target to hit. the power bar of a rocket effects its fuel load, and space not used by fuel is used by explosive so get away with less fuel and you will do more damage. Rockets have a medium splash damage radius, so you only need to hit fairly near your enemy to upset him. The rocket pod fires multiple rockets on one target and is a spectacular display, don't get hit by it.

Bombs:
Bombs are very damaging, but are released with low velocities and so are not always a viable option to get high up targets. The bomb goes off only when the timer triggers it, so you have to gauge the timing using the power slide when aiming. Bombs bounce on all planets and stars, so sometimes they can reach parts other weapons struggle with. They also have a massive splash damage radius, nobody is safe.

Guns:
Guns fire quite with high velocity, and only do direct damage - there is no splash. The power slider changes the spread of the gun, so you can vary from a wide spread of bullets to a narrow focused shot. The shotgun has a lower bullet velocity but fires a great number of projectiles but the minigun - that is a dangerous weapon!

Weapon Crystals:
These bright crystals appear at random and are found inside some asteroids. shooting them releases extra powerful weapons.

Celestial Objects

Planets
Planets are small dense solid gravitational attractors, they are destructible, breaking up into multiple asteroids if they sustain enough damage.

Stars
Stars are bright, very large, less dense bodies. Bullets can skim off the surface of stars if they hit at a low angle. Stars can be destroyed, but take a very large amount of damage. When they die, a supernova is set off, and either a black hole or a white dwarf is left behind.

Gas Giant
Large, very low density, planets are made of gas. They can be shot through if bullets have enough speed.

Asteroids
More often moving, and easily destructible asteroids split into smaller asteroids when the are destroyed. Sometimes they release weapon crystals.

White Dwarfs
Small and very dense, these project powerful gravitational fields leading to the most spectacular chaotic bullet paths. Indestructible.

Black Holes
Invisible and extremely dense, these project the most powerful gravitational fields. Because they can't be seen, they often result in surprising outcomes, with mammoths shooting themselves in the back.

White Holes
Bright and very rare, space and time pours out of these strange entities giving a range of reverse gravity near them, but leaving them as gravitational attractors at long range.

Wormholes
Spherical portals that join regions of space; bullets enter one wormhole and jump instantly to the other. They have mass and give off a gravitational fields.

A Mammoth game, about Mammoths