Mars Mission II (1981)

Look: 8/10 The Cavern of Mars II title screen is great! I like that I was able to know exactly where the "collision masks"/hitboxes of the sprites are because they were well-made (that is, I knew exactly how far down I could go before destroying the ship on the ground).

Sound: 7/10 Functional enough, technically an annoying shooting sound but because it's so over-the-top high-pitched I actually secretly like it :-X Like how I like noise music :-p

Play: 8/10 I really enjoyed this. In many ways it's just another scrolling arcade shooter game, but the controls were excellent, the mechanics well-done, the re-fueling challenge well-balanced, and well let's be honest--I just like it when I feel I can manage to play a game. I felt good while playing this! Ha. Now, I chose one of the easier difficulties and by no means am an excellent player--but I had a lot of fun playing this. (Mind you, I had to refer to the game manual, available here and the Atari 800 emulator website (so I could figure out which keyboard buttons correspond to Option and Select) just to get the game started lol. But once it was rolling, it was smooth sailing.) Pro-tip: stay as low (and left) as you can without blowing up; it's your best bet to hit enough Fuel to last longer.

Feel: 9/10 Again, I can't exactly put my finger on it--tho it's probly just that I felt decent at it--but I had a lot of fun playing this and just simply felt good while playing it. Play this if you are in the mood for a fun, straightforward shooter game!

Attachment: 8/10 Not sure what it is about the game, but it clicked with me. It's really just another scrolling arcade shooter, but it's the one I have picked out as my fave to return to whenever in the mood for simple arcade fun! (and for the record, when I say arcade, I mean genre, not platform: I played this on Atari 800.)

P.S. This game really should be in the database as Caverns of Mars II, tbh