Let's begin with the story: Earth becomes the target of an alien attack, but this time instead of just one race of aliens that wants to wipe out humans, there are five which wish to do so. The races range from the technologically advanced Sadeen to the Galaga space bugs (based off of the classic arcade shooter of the same name). You take control of space pilot Roy Hignick, a member of team Gaia, whose job it is to make sure Mother Earth isn't destroyed. As far as I can tell the story does not evolve much further than the classic "save Earth from random alien attack" plot we have seen too many times before.

To start, the player is given three options to choose from: TRAINING, COMMAND, and CONQUEST. Training mode is pretty much self explanatory, you are thrown into a spaceship surrounded by easy enemies allowing you to adjust to the controls. In Command mode you go out on separate missions where you systematically fight through one alien race at a time. Conquest mode is where the real meat of the game is. In Conquest mode you are given a large randomly created map of the solar system that shows the location of your enemies and friendly objects such as planets and laboratories that you must defend. Conquest mode does not end until you have defeated the almost non-stop onslaught of alien races.

The overall gameplay reminded me of the classic Atari game Star Command. You always start off with a map of the area to decide your strategy. Once you know what you are up against you can decide to either warp to an enemyÕs location or to use your photons. Photons are basically tactical nukes that you can use from a distance. They are good weapons to have just in case you can't make it to a base in time to save it. Once you arrive at an enemy location it is time to fight. The controls are simple: R1 and L1 to speed up and slow down, R2 and L2 to make your ship spin left or right, square to fire your main weapon, X to fire your sub-weapon, circle to change the magnification level on your radar, and triangle brings up a map of the galaxy. The overall point of the game is to decide which enemies to attack first in order to save all of the planets and space stations in the area. If your ship becomes damaged or runs low on energy you must return to a base for repairs or warp to a planet with an orbiting satellite that fuels you up. Once at a base you can talk to an operator or technician who will give you advice, information on your enemies, and tell you what weapons or ships are now available to you. At a base you are able to change your ship and weapons as well as take on a partner to help aid in your fight.

Even with all of these customizable options Star Ixiom fails to please in so many categories. First, the gameplay is incredibly repetitive. Once you have destroyed all of the enemies in on area it is off to the next for more of the same. This would not be a problem if it were not for the horrible AI. I found myself arriving at an area and easily blasting away all of the bad guys without much of a fight. I never had to take evasive maneuvers because the aim of the enemy ships was horrible. Second, the graphics are not up to par with what I have come to expect from NAMCO. The opening FMV is nice but that is where the "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" stop. The Galaga space bugs have some of the lowest polygon counts I have seen in a long time. The bugs actually have less features to them than they had back in the arcade. The backgrounds consist of simple color patches and stars. One other problem with the graphics is that there is always a local star as part of the background and NAMCO added a very annoying lens flare effect to it. Try shooting a space bug when you have a bunch of large, overlapping, orange circles on your screen. Lastly, the music grates on your nerves after the first 10 minutes. Each alien race has their own repetive, uninspired music that you must listen to whenever you fight them. The only time I actually enjoyed the music was when NAMCO put a few bars from the classic shooter in the mix.