Total Eclipse was the UK release title, in fact it was the UK pack-in game. It was to be a show case for the 3DO in Europe.

It failed.

The problem was, that the European release of the 3DO was a year after  the U.S., release and six-months after the Japanese release.

It was September 1994, and the super 3D arcade machines of the day were the Ferraris and Christian Dior of gaming. Sleek, desirable and powerful. The elite of this creme-de-la-creme were games like Ridge Racer, Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Daytona.

Nothing came close.

Sony and Sega were promising home conversions of these super-games. I remember standing slack jawed in front of a Daytona machine, staggered, not by the game, but by the raw processing power of the processors behind it. This was to be played in the home?

Then came 3DO. The 3DO with it's Total Eclipse. It looked kind of second rate. It looked kind lame. The graphics looked to my eyes, very  computer-world, as opposed  Ridge Racers, which looked very real world. Seems silly now as Ridge has aged badly, but the chasm between Namcos racer  and Crystal Dynamics 3D SHMUP was insurmountable. In 1994 when 3DO launched in the UK with Total Eclipse, PS-X and Project Mercury were offering unbelievable, where as 3DO was offering yesterday. And Total Eclipse merely compounded that.

It's a shame. Total Eclipse is an enjoyable game. It didn't feature the same dreadful real-time acting that so many of it's counter parts suffered from. It's not entirely linear. It's actually pretty good.

It's main problem is that it lacks imagination. It's just a 3D take on plain Space Invaders. What  3DO and Crystal Dyanmics didn't seem to realise, was that between 1978 and 1993 space invaders  had moved on. It had moved on a lot.

Crystal Dynamics, bless them, were American. If 3DO was going to release with a Ridge/Daytona beating game, and that game was to be a SHMUP, then that project, quite honestly, should have been handed to the Japanese. Taito, Seibu Kaihatsu, someone who knew SHUMPS. Someone who would relish the extra processing power that 3DO offered. Paint a SHMUP the likes of which the world had never seen. Instead it was given to a U.S., start'up company. It's was tantamount to asking some British people to make a Cowboy western, a German guy to make authentic American-italian Pizza, or a Japanese guy to make bangers and mash, or indeed, make an FPS.  The best you can hope for is 80% right on a first attempt. It was never likely, with 20:20 hindsight to be the next great SHUMP.

And it wasn't.

All credit to Crystal Dynamics, Total Eclipse is actually worth cracking out today and playing. It's actually alright. It's a good solid game and it's a fun, importantly it is balanced and a fair challenge. If I was to do scores out of ten, which I don't but if I was, I would give 8 out of 10.  It's just not a scratch on R-Type, Einhander or  Darius. It was a strange choice.  It was, sadly for the 3DO, okay. It wasn't the future. It had no pizazz. It was no Ferrari.

Cruising today, over the uninteresting alien backdrop, firing the uninspiring but obviously R-type to a degree inspired weapons, blasting the  clichéd 3D incarnations of  the 2D Space Invaders enemy craft  something is apparent. What that is, is that the 3DO was under-rated. The truth in that comes when one of the baddies exploded. It's kind of pretty.

The keep killing to stay alive gameplay element is an interesting twist. Moments arrive while playing that you wish you could see another enemy. So you can kill them, so you can live a little longer. 

Each level is split into four segments, with an ened of level boss. Only one end of level boss stands out. The Volcano boss. Again, it's proof that Crystal Dynamics were merely aiming to create a tollerable 3D SHMUP, and not letting their creative skills go wild. As I believe Taito would have done.

Strangely, Total Eclipse represents 3DO in more ways than just being the EU launch title. It, as a game, can be used to summarises the whole system which is: undervalued.

Not rare, you should play it today.

3DOKid.

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