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The X52-ArkLight is the last hope of a conquered planet Vestal, a spaceship capable of destroying the forces of the tyrannical Krainian Empire. ArkLight is a 3D arcade game combining the brick-breaking action of Arkanoid with traditional vertical shooters like Zanac and Aleste. The player controls an aircraft flying through mazes filled with large bricks called Metacubes, where the main objective is to reach the final blockade covering the exit pad. The ship can clear a path through the Metacubes by shooting energy spheres, making them bounce on the surrounding surfaces and the ship itself until most bricks and enemies are hit and destroyed. The fire button can be held down for more powerful shots, with a secondary button used to reabsorb the spheres and recover some of the spent energy. There are several types of Metacubes, power-ups and enemies throughout the levels. The yellow Metacubes are the most common type, breaking with a single hit; the red Metacubes are more resilient, needing multiple shots to be destroyed; the green Metacubes are also called Recycled which means that they will be replaced by new ones falling from above when eliminated. Metal Metacubes can't be smashed by the spheres. Power-ups and bonus points appear randomly on the field after shattering some of the Metacubes, slowly drifting downwards and waiting to be collected by the ship. The powers increase the amount of energy on reserve, give free shots for a few seconds by freezing the energy meter, double the number of shots per firing, increase the speed of the spheres, explode all the targets with a smart bomb and cut through several Metacubes with a single sphere. There are enemies shooting back at certain points, like the stationary turrets, the roaming tanks and a squadron of flying ships. They all can be defeated in the same way as Metacubes, however, it will take more than one shot to eliminate them. More powerful spheres can finish them much quicker. At the end of each stage, the ship stops at a blockade where all the cubes must be eliminated to finish the level. |
