STORY
Earth is under attack.  Alien forces are invading, and it is up to you to stop them.  You must jump in your ship and defeat the enemy before they reach Earth's atmosphere.  Standing between you and the Mother Ship, however, lies wave upon wave of enemy fire.  The first thing you encounter are the scouts.  They have been sent in two waves, and they have just one thing in mind - to destroy you.   You must use all your firepower, as well as your shields to survive.  Next come the soldier birds, also in two waves.  They are bigger than the scouts.  The battle is fierce, but you know you must be brave if you want to save Earth.  After surviving the soldiers, you finally reach the Mother Ship.  This is it.  The final showdown!  You need to destroy the alien inside by gradually blasting through the ship's defences  and breaking through the forcefield in the centre, all the while avoiding enemy fire.  You FINALLY manage to blow up the Mother Ship.  Earth is safe now, but for how long?

GAMEPLAY
Phoenix is an arcade game, where you must defend Earth against an invading force of alien birds.  You do this by firing at the birds in order to destroy them.  You can also use your shield to protect you when you are in a tricky situation.  The shield can be very useful, but I must point out that although you can still fire when the shield is up, you cannot move.  When the shield turns off, you can't use it again for 4 seconds.  The game is controlled by keyboard, and the keys can be reconfigured to suit you preference.  The game will automatically remember your preference for next time.  You can also change the difficulty settings between Easy, Medium, and Hard.  There is even an online hi-score board, so you can show off your high scores to the world if you want.  The online scoreboard is turned off by default, so remember to turn it on if you want to save your high scores online.

There are five waves altogether.  Scout birds are small and agile.  They are either green & purple (Wave 1) or green & blue (Wave 2).  Soldiers are much larger and a lot more aggressive.  They start out as balls, but then they quickly turn into blue (Wave 3) or purple (Wave 4) falcon-like birds with large wings.  You must shoot the body in order to destroy them.  If you just shoot the wings, the birds can still fly around, and the wings will grow back.  Finally, you reach the Mother Ship (Wave 5). Here you must blast through the forcefields, and blow up the Mother alien inside.  Not as easy as it sounds, when there are scouts, and the alien itself, continuously firing at you.  When you destroy the Mother Ship, the game begins again from the first wave.

     DEFAULT KEYS
     Move left & right   -  Left & Right arrow keys
     Fire                       -  Space Bar
     Shield                    -  Right Control

GRAPHICS
I love the graphics in this game.  There is a different background for each wave, and it continuously scrolls down, giving the impression that you are travelling through space.  Enemy birds move very smoothly as they swoop down to attack you.  Each wave of birds is a different colour, which I think is nice.  I especially like how the soldiers pop out from the flying balls.  They look so scary with their eyes and claws!    The Mother Ship itself is very impressive, with the alien hiding inside. 

SOUND EFFECTS
There are lots of amazing sound effects in this game.  Things like firing at the birds, or your ship exploding are very effective.  Birds flying around have a very 'spacey' sound.  Using your shield has an interesting 'humming' noise that is very distinctive.  Destroying the Mother Ship is my favourite sound.  You hear a nice explosion as you finally break through that forcefield. 

SUMMARY
This is a very polished game that everyone is sure to love.  The idea is simple - just blast everything you can - but it is so addictive.  The backgrounds are lovely to see, and really make it seem like you are travelling through space.  Those soldier birds are very creepy, and I love how they dive down very suddenly.  I love the sound effects, with all the firing noises, and hummings and explosions.  The only thing I thought strange was the shield.  You can still fire, but you can't move.  I would have preferred it the other way round so that you can move out of harm's way, but not fire.  But that is only a minor gripe.  Phoenix is definitely a 'Just One More Go' game that I highly recommend.  Why not download it and try for yourself?