Review: Phoenix

[Daniel W. Rouse Jr.]

Let's get this out of the way: the version of Phoenix on Taito Legends for
the PS2 has some sort of odd emulation issue that has the wrong sounds.
Phoenix never had grating or irritating sounds in the arcade. Too bad that
anyone playing Phoenix these days will think it was an irritating game. It's
not, if anyone can find a genuine Centuri Phoenix arcade game machine.

Anyway...

Phoenix is a fixed shooter game. The player ship moves left to right, can
fire, and has a force field.

Stage 1, the ship can only fire one shot at a time at the attacking birds.
Stage 2, the ship can fire multiple shots at the attacking birds.
Stage 3, back to one shot for the eggs and the birds. Hitting the wing only
removes one wing, hitting both wings causes both of them to respawn. The
bird must be hit in the center.
Stage 4, see stage 3, except for the birds are pink instead of blue, and
move faster.
Stage 5, big UFO with stage 2 type attacking birds, player ship has the same
firing ability as in stage 2. The layers of the ship must be hit enough
times to hit the alien in the UFO.

Then the game loops, more attacking birds in stage 1 and 2, more birds and
faster shots for the UFO.

The versions of Phoenix I have played are both the Centuri arcade version
and the version on Taito Legends for the PS2.