Phelios is an oldschool 2d helicopter game.

Phelios places you in the role of Apollo. Your mission is to attain the legendary sword Phelios and rescue Artemis from the monstrous Typhon. The last type of game that you'd expect to have a plot like this would probably be a shoot 'em up, but that's exactly what Phelios is – and it's a darn good one at that.

Monstrosities ranging from Medusa and Cerberus to the three blind old ladies in “Clash of the Titans” show up in Phelios. Your task is to destroy these abominations, and your trusty horse Pegasus accompanies you on your quest. Far from being your ordinary mammal, Pegasus is a fantastic winged beast, and he also represents your mode of transportation in the game.

There are two levels of difficulty that you can try out: Novice and Advanced. Phelios game is hard enough on Novice, but the only way to access the final three stages of the game (as well as the ending sequence) is by playing on Advanced. And if you happen to have your hands full with the Novice mode, try not to think about the fact that things don't really start to get rough until the level following the final stage of Novice mode.

Phelios consists of seven stages in all. In between levels, Apollo views an image of Artemis as she speaks of the pain and suffering she is enduring at the hands of Typhon. Not only do Artemis' words appear on the screen, but also implemented a voice for her in the game.

The backgrounds are incredibly well done, with all sorts of fine tuned details. In the levels where you are flying over rivers and lakes, you can see individual clouds moving past at various speeds. The bad guys themselves look pretty cool as well. They are all different, although some sprites are reused with different colours. They move smoothly though, and the variety is incredible and fitting to each stage. In the first level, there are large dragons which fire a trio of fireballs at you, while in the second level which sees you flying through a cave, there are all kinds of wall crawlers which are trying to knock you out the air.Apollo could admittedly look better. He has very few animations, which each have very few frames. They could have spent more time on him, but then it has to be remembered that this is an old game, and it would have been harder to add any more frames without it looking cluttered.Bosses are very well done, sticking with the idea of greek mythology, with Medusa, Cerberus, and Siren amongst others.

The music in Phelios is good, and has a large variety and adds a lot of effect ESPECIALLY in the ice caves level. Sound effects in Phelios are also impressive. The soundtrack ranges from upbeat, exhilarating tunes (during the high-flying levels that take place in the sky) to intense, intimidating tracks (often played inside of dungeons or caverns). The sound effects are surprisingly solid; shooters can often get annoying when you are forced to hear your screeching laser cannon being fired over and over again, but Phelios manages to keep the effects simple and subdued.

The levels vary greatly in style. Almost each level contains at least one scene where you have to employ a special strategy to succeed. These special tasks considerably spicen up the gameplay, even though some of them could have been implemented better. A good example for this is the last stage, where you have to collect all the letters of the word “PHELIOS” in order to upgrade your charge shot.

The action is fast and furious, with a huge variety of environments and enemies, and of course the pick ups to butcher them with. With a health bar of only three hits, and only room for one more, it is challenging.