It's amazing.
Such a seemingly simple game, made for a glorified calculator that the owners of actual computers laughed at..
.. and yet it cannot be matched, let alone surpassed by these superior machines.
The C64 conversions are pretty awful or at least lackluster, and like them, this version also makes the player want to rush back to the Spectrum-version, where everything is right.
This plays really well, though - it's fluid, the action is smooth and nice (though it seems there is less moving action, meaning, fewer meteors and such objects).
But there are pretty big cons;
1) Lack of color. Spectrum, as monochromatic as it basically is, managed to give this game a lot of color. What happened to the wonderful 128 colors that the Atarists are always boasting about? Don't tell me you can't even match the SPECTRUM?
2) Annoying music. The original had neat, eerie silence, that was only interrupted by the (barely) adequate sound effects, adding to create an interesting atmosphere. Here there's just some non-musical song irritating your brains out.
3) Unneeded additions (many games suffer from this - the original simplicity isn't enough for some reason, so they mess it up by adding unnecessary stuff), like the air thing. Why?
4) Color clashes outside the rocket - I know the Spectrum was always full of color clashes, but this wasn't one of them. The rocket fills with color quite nicely. Here the color clash creates ugly charboxes around the rocket.
I have played so many versions of this game, all of which made me DESIRE to play the Spectrum-version instead.
This is no exception.
A valiant effort, for sure. But no cigar. |