Review scoopings 3/5 · Oct 2, 2022
Simple, Straightforward Shoot Em Up That Is Oddly Endearing
Preliminary: Despite having so many of the things I dislike about early video games--score-based gameplay, goofy straightforward sci-fi shoot em up concept, and the inclusion of simulated craft-landing--I couldn't help but keep playing. Maybe because I had it at the difficulty I can handle, maybe because it had been a while since I played an Atari game, maybe because I …
Preliminary: Despite having so many of the things I dislike about early video games--score-based gameplay, goofy straightforward sci-fi shoot em up concept, and the inclusion of simulated craft-landing--I couldn't help but keep playing. Maybe because I had it at the difficulty I can handle, maybe because it had been a while since I played an Atari game, maybe because I tend to love Activision Looks, or maybe because I hadn't played an arcade-style shoot em up in a while. Either way, this surprised me.
Look: 7/10 I love the classic Activision symbol and sunset backgrounds, but otherwise, quite simple and functional.
Sound: 6/10 A bit annoying at times but innocuous enough. Not factored in to the overall score.
Play: 7/10 Surprisingly tight controls, tho I suppose that was the usual for the Atari era. I usually dislike the glide-as-you-stop feature of racing and other vehicle games, but it's not too annoying in this. It was nice making narrow, by-a-hair rescues, and the controls made that possible. Oh, and if you didn't know you're not just shooting things, at each yellow looking square on the mini-map is a human at the bottom to save (press down, it seems, to rescue them). Fuel is almost always at the top of the screen, and they usually alternate (how exciting... not sure why I enjoyed this game as much as I did ha). It's good to go real fast, but keep an eye on the minimap for when the yellow box blinks, usually time to slow down. The later levels, the alternating pattern of the Fuels/Humans changes a bit, but still simple enough. Almost too simple... but hey, for a mediocre gamer like myself, we need straightforward games with difficulty settings (as was, thankfully, the norm in the Atari era) so we can play at the easiest game mode possible and feel good about ourselves :-p (and have fun!)
Feel: 7/10 Addictive, not sure why I kept pushing through as if there was gonna be an attainable "last level" or some rewarding endgame screen (or is there?!). Not a fan of landing the craft at the beginning of each level, seems redundant (pro-tip: just press up and then at some point near the ground, press up again to slow it down enough... tada... boring even on the first time, let alone the 7th).
Attachment: 7/10
The fact I kept playing this despite having so many other games to play and skipping streaming... not to mention a redundant system by 1984... it all says a lot. Not sure if this is an "end screen" (ah, that classic Activision look with the rainbow/sunset vibe colors) or what, but it wouldn't let me move at this point, unless I screwed something up? lol. 
Regardless, I had had enough of the gameplay by that point anyway, but the fact I played for 30 minutes straight and felt quite good at it (and like I might play it again, tho not all that likely..) means this warrants a review (and probly a playtest from any y'all who enjoy Atari and early arcade shoot em ups, Defender-style).
Completion: 12,217 Score Playtime: ~35 mins
