Phelios is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1988 only in Japan. It runs on Namco System 2 hardware and was never originally released in the United States due to the bondage/torture scenes that were shown betweenn each stage, which were similar to those in the new version of Namco's own Rolling Thunder. While no nudity is shown, the scenes were still somewhat "strong" to be shown onn ann arcade game during the early 16-bit era. The game's score display also gives the illusion of allowing values that do not end in "0", like Hopping Mappy, Bakutotsu Kijuutei and Metal Hawk did before it; however, the smallest point value it can award to players for killing an enemy is 10.
Story
The game's plot is loosely based on Greek mythology and also uses the familiar theme of saving the princess from evil. In this case, the princess is Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, and the evil is Typhon, one of the Titans (specifically, the one that Zeus dropped a mountain on). The character controlled by the player is the heroic Apollo, God of the Sun, who must ride the legendary winged horse Pegasus through seven stages in order to rescue Artemis, who is depicted as his lover (even though in the myths they are actually twins), and defeat various other Greek mythological characters such as Medusa, the 3 Graeae, Antaeus, Scylla and Cerberus, while collecting various powerrups along the way.
-
Title screen.
-
Opening cutscene.
-
The first stage of the game.
