This game is another honorable mention in personal favorite video games, it's also another video game that came out on my birth year. This is another of Atari's long roster of big early 80's classics, it wasn't as big as certain well-known ones but as time went on has become a sleeper hit.
I remember seeing the arcade cabinets of this game when I was a kid, one was in one at the "Chuck E Cheese" in Spokane, Washington but another was mainly at the video arcade in "The Valley Mall" in Yakima, Washington. That arcade cabinet was just awesome looking from that art you would see from the sign on top, frame, but also the side of the cabinet with some cool astronaut warrior on a planet, lasers shooting and a ship that is taking off. Even like the control which were a series of buttons and even the board art which made it look like you were controlling the controls on a star ship.
The graphical presentation is great as it's the beautiful vector graphics which I like as it's a perfect fit for those games set in space, making you feel like your really are there. Really like the format of the game which is interesting as you select which planet you want to go to and liberate. This was a novelty at the time as selection of your own levels was uncommon, this function of course became utilized in other game like "Venture" and of course "Mega Man". And like in those games each of the planets are a different level design which was cool as it meant a different kind of challenge each time as opposed to most video games at the time where it was the same kind of challenge but just ramped up in difficulty.
The control in the game is solid, it's a little awkward at first as it consists of what I mentioned earlier but you get use to it and it feels natural. Really like the gameplay as it may seem like another "Asteroids" controlled space shooter but it's much more as it's also a physics puzzle. The ship you control acts on the gravity of the planet pulling you in and you must constantly keep your ship up and moving but move carefully, going too fast, too slow, or even simply the slight wrong turn could result in a crash. You have to maneuver well while at the same time be able to nail the targets, complete the objective and move on.
The game is challenging as you really have the controls to master but also the challenge with it, that could frustrate you to the very core, as you can easily crash in the game. But that's part of what makes the game, so rewarding is that it's your own skill and precision maneuvering and firing that's going to win the level.
This is a vintage classic worth gravitating toward.
Rating: 3 and a half stars.
I remember seeing the arcade cabinets of this game when I was a kid, one was in one at the "Chuck E Cheese" in Spokane, Washington but another was mainly at the video arcade in "The Valley Mall" in Yakima, Washington. That arcade cabinet was just awesome looking from that art you would see from the sign on top, frame, but also the side of the cabinet with some cool astronaut warrior on a planet, lasers shooting and a ship that is taking off. Even like the control which were a series of buttons and even the board art which made it look like you were controlling the controls on a star ship.
The graphical presentation is great as it's the beautiful vector graphics which I like as it's a perfect fit for those games set in space, making you feel like your really are there. Really like the format of the game which is interesting as you select which planet you want to go to and liberate. This was a novelty at the time as selection of your own levels was uncommon, this function of course became utilized in other game like "Venture" and of course "Mega Man". And like in those games each of the planets are a different level design which was cool as it meant a different kind of challenge each time as opposed to most video games at the time where it was the same kind of challenge but just ramped up in difficulty.
The control in the game is solid, it's a little awkward at first as it consists of what I mentioned earlier but you get use to it and it feels natural. Really like the gameplay as it may seem like another "Asteroids" controlled space shooter but it's much more as it's also a physics puzzle. The ship you control acts on the gravity of the planet pulling you in and you must constantly keep your ship up and moving but move carefully, going too fast, too slow, or even simply the slight wrong turn could result in a crash. You have to maneuver well while at the same time be able to nail the targets, complete the objective and move on.
The game is challenging as you really have the controls to master but also the challenge with it, that could frustrate you to the very core, as you can easily crash in the game. But that's part of what makes the game, so rewarding is that it's your own skill and precision maneuvering and firing that's going to win the level.
This is a vintage classic worth gravitating toward.
Rating: 3 and a half stars.
