BattleMorph takes place 30 years after CyberMorph took place. the Federation has rebuilt and has not heard of the Pernitian menaces for quite a long time now. The Federation has built several massive battle cruisers to patrol Federation space to keep the Pernitians out, just in case they ever happen to show up again. For a long time, nothing really happens until one day one of the cruisers are reported missing in the Persius Cluster. Investigations follow, also resulting in the loss of several other cruisers. The Pernitians are back ...
The Federation has a weapon to fight them off however, a new prototype ship, called the WarGriffon. The WarGriffon has been placed on the last remaining battle cruiser, the USS Sutherland, and has completed test runs. The WarGriffon is much more advanced than the old T-Griffon, equipped with advanced shields, weapons, and sensor systems, the Federation has a chance with the WarGriffon to crush the Pernitian empire once and for all.
BattleMorph is one of the coolest games on the Jaguar, period. Everything that was lacking in CyberMorph is in this version, and many more features, thanks to the CD media. One of the best features is the fact that all of the levels are mission based this time. CyberMorph tried an appearance of missions(the little stories at the beginning of each level, although they didn't mean much in the long run), but BM has some real missions to it. There are missions where you have to destroy certain things, such as radar stations or factories, etc. There are ones where you have to disable power stations, ones you put together new weapons, etc. No more collecting massive amounts of pods per level. It's really cool to play, and there are so many worlds, 60 or more maybe, I'm not sure exactly.
BattleMorph's graphics are awesome as well, I mean really awesome. The FMV quality is great, much like IS2's. There is practically no pop-up, everything smoothly transists on the screen. The poly count is higher, as is the frame rate, the color is higher, there are really cool backdrops, and the shading is better. There is also some good amounts of t-mapping. One of the coolest things are the underwater and tunnel areas, which play a major part within the game.Some missions you may spend entirely underwater. There are also different types of water you have to keep an eye out for. They include normal water, healing water(recharges your sheilds), viscious water(lets you fly through twice as fast), and the deadly acid water. When you dive underwater, the graphics and the music change instantly. It's so freakin' smooth, you won't believe it. There is NO LOADING TIME! It loads just as fast as a cartridge. And you can surface and dive as fast as you want, but no loading accompanies it. I just laugh at the PSX which takes forever for things like that to load.
The soundtrack just plain rules. It is of the soft-technoish style, a fits amazingly well with the game. I really like the tracks that are played underwater. Thanks to the CD format, they are long and crystal clear. I have no idea how many tracks there are, there's so many.
Overall, this is one of my most favorite Jaguar games. Obviously, ATD took their time when designing this game, and it shows with the quality of the game, as well as with the sheer size. After seeing videos from the 'lost' Jaguar game Phaze zero, I believe it would have been possible for them to use a voxel-based landscape, which would have also moved smoothly and probably would look better as well. Nevertheless, BattleMorph is really fun, the control is dead-on, the graphics are smooth, and the music is great! If you happen to own a Jaguar CD, make sure you get this game. I don't know anyone who doesn't like this game, and if there is, they need their head's examined.
-Adam
