is a 1989 vertical

scrolling shooter In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...

video game released for the

Namco System 2 Namco was a video game developer and publisher, originally from Japan. Bandai Namco Entertainment is the successor to Namco and continues manufacturing and distributing video games worldwide. For Namco games released following the 2006 merger wit ...

arcade platform in Japan by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

. A

Sega Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

port was released in 1990. The game features a plot loosely based on

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

Gameplay

The player takes control of Apollo, who is mounted upon the back of his winged horse Pegasus; pressing the firing button makes his sword fire a tiny shot, while holding it down charges the sword up, and upon releasing the button the sword shoots a bigger fireball. Even the smallest enemies take multiple hits, so the standard shot is of little use - and each of the game's seven stages is divided into between two and four sections (the transition from one to another is indicated by a block of Japanese text appearing at the bottom of the screen and a change in music). At the end of every stage, Apollo must also defeat a boss character from Greek myth:

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...

, the

Graeae In Greek mythology the Graeae ( grc, Γραῖαι; ; English translation: "old women", "grey ones", or "grey witches"; alternatively spelled Graiai and Graiae) were three sisters who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one t ...

, the

Siren Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wiscon ...

Antaeus Antaeus (; Ancient Greek: Ἀνταῖος ''Antaîos'', "opponent", derived from , ''antao'' – 'I face, I oppose'), known to the Berbers as Anti, was a figure in Berber and Greek mythology. He was famed for his defeat by Heracles as part ...

Scylla In Greek mythology, Scylla), is obsolete. ( ; grc-gre, Σκύλλα, Skúlla, ) is a legendary monster who lives on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's ra ...

(who has taken on the form of the "Crystal Brain" from the aforementioned ''Bakutotsu Kijūtei''),

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus (; grc-gre, Κέρβερος ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring of the ...

, and Typhon himself; once he has done so, he will proceed to the enchanted mirror at the back of the boss character temple, before the game segues into the next stage. Apollo can take up to four hits before dying (indicated by the "playing-cards" hearts at the bottom of the screen, and determined by how the cabinet is set), but will die instantly if he flies into a wall or touches a boss's head - and this game also features voice samples (in Japanese for the original arcade and Japanese Mega Drive versions, but in English for the North American Genesis and European Mega Drive versions). And if the "rank select" option in the arcade version's option menu has been set to "on", players will also be able to select an "easy" or "hard" game mode, once they have inserted their coin; however, the "easy" mode only features the first four stages and does not feature the game's complete ending sequence as a result of it.

Plot

The player takes control of the knight

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, the god of the sun, who sets off on the legendary winged horse

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

, to rescue his lover,

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. ...

, the goddess of the moon, from the Titan,

Typhon Typhon (; grc, Τυφῶν, Typhôn, ), also Typhoeus (; grc, Τυφωεύς, Typhōeús, label=none), Typhaon ( grc, Τυφάων, Typháōn, label=none) or Typhos ( grc, Τυφώς, Typhṓs, label=none), was a monstrous serpentine giant an ...

. The game takes names and little else from Greek mythology in which Apollo, god of the sun, was actually Artemis's brother. The game shows players an Artemis that acts as a princess (but in Greek mythology, she was the goddess of the hunt, and took pride in never being with any man).

Release

The arcade version of this game was never released in the United States, due to Artemis's "bondage/torture" scenes, which were shown between each stage, and were similar to those from the new version of Namco's own '' Rolling Thunder''; while no nudity is shown, the scenes were still somewhat "strong" to be shown in an arcade game during the early 16-bit era. This game's score display also gives the illusion of allowing values which do not end in "0", like ''

Hopping Mappy is an arcade game which was released by Namco in 1986. It is the sequel to ''Mappy'', which was released three years earlier. The game was ported to the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on June 2, 2009. Gameplay In ''Hopping Mappy'' players con ...

'', '' Bakutotsu Kijūtei'', and ''

Metal Hawk is a 1988 multidirectional shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. Assuming control of the titular attack helicopter, the player is tasked with using a machine gun and air-to-surface missiles to destroy enemies and earn a certain nu ...

'' did before it - however, the smallest point value that the game can award to a player for killing an enemy is 10.

Reception

The Japanese magazine ''Game Machine'' listed ''Phelios'' in their March 1, 1989 issue as being the third most-popular arcade game at the time.

Notes

References

External links

*{{KLOV game, id=9003 1989 video games Arcade video games Horse-related video games Namco arcade games Vertically scrolling shooters Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Sega Genesis games Video games based on Greek mythology Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Vertically-oriented video games Hamster Corporation games