Romance by an unknown composer. Für Elise by Beethoven. Both songs are built directly into the Matsushita MN6221AA Melody IC, as opposed to being programmed into the game's code as is standard in games. In some bootleg versions of the game, which used the namco galaxian Board, House of the rising sun is played at the start of the game. Bugs When the player shoots three birdlike enemies in a row very quickly as they fly upwards, the total score is set to a value in the vicinity of 204,000 points. Reception The arcade game was a commercial success in Japan and Europe, prior to its release in the Americas. It also went on to be a commercial success in North America, where it was one of Centuri's biggest hits. Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz of Electronic Games called Phoenix "perhaps the finest invasion title ever produced for the 2600!" with praise for its "fantastic graphics, unexcelled play-action and more". Computer and Video Games ranked it number one on its list of top ten Atari VCS games in 1983. The game received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Science Fiction/ Fantasy Videogame" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked Phoenix 69th on their Top 100 Video Games. In a retrospective review by Brett Alan Weiss (AllGame) the game was awarded a five out of five rating, referring to it as a "one of the most impressive games the "slide-and-shoot" genre has to offer, bested only by Galaga in terms of sheer enjoyment and replayability" and concluded that "Finely balanced shooting action combined with colorfully animated graphics make Phoenix a true classic among shooters." Legacy Re-releases In 2005, Phoenix was released on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSP and Microsoft Windows as part of Taito Legends in the US and Europe, and Taito Memories II Gekan in Japan. Clones Griffon by Videotron in 1980 Falcon by BGV in 1980 Vautour by Jeutel in 1980 in France Condor by Sidam in 1981 Demon Seed by Trend Software for the TRS-80 in 1982 Pheenix by Megadodo for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 Eagle Empire Alligata for the BBC Micro and the Commodore 64 in 1983 Firebirds by Softek for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 Omega Phoenix for the Sinclair ZX81 in 2021 The Imagic game Demon Attack for the Atari 2600 closely resembled Phoenix which Atari