SHMUPS





Blasteroids - Atari Games







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Blasteroids
(or "gimme a Mukor on the rocks….")

Reviewed by Roger Post

OK, anyone who can even hold a joystick should know certain gaming lingo, and also names of specific games as soon as they are mentioned. Phrases such as 1up, powerup, boss, come to mind for the fist part, and milestones such as Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Asteroids are essential to video game history. If you don't recognize these favorites (and possibly shed a small tear reminiscing) you don't belong on this web page, or even on this planet. Blasteroids is basically Asteroids with a "BL". Just kidding, the differences go beyond that.

The concept of Asteroids is a small ship thrown in the center of a spaceload of huge rocks, with the objective of blowing them to kingdom come. The directional pad can control the spaceship on a 360 degree plane. Forward motion is achieved by activating the thruster, which only pushes you in the direction you are facing. Rather than push "left" to move left, you have to turn the ship and thurst, and hope you don't overshoot. Inertia counts.

While the original Asteroids is very simplistic, yet much fun to play, Blasteroids adds just enough new elements to make this one a keeper. Keeping the same basic controls, you now have the option of morphing into three different ships: the main ship, heavy on firepower, a quick little guy that zips around, and a huge but hard to control armored ship. You have the freedom to morph whenever your little heart desires, but most of your time will be spent on the standard ship. The problem comes in the form of energy, which is lost every time you shoot or thrust. Lose all of this, and score one for the rocks.

You are given a map which shows what kinds of enemies and how much extra energy are in each sector. There is a slight strategy element here, forcing you to make the decision on how to tackle the sectors and conserve energy. There are several different enemies, each with different characteristics. The turtles, for example, try to nab all you powerups and enegry on the screen. In order to assist you, destroying baddies leaves such helpful items as: shields, enegry tanks, an energy magnet (to pull in crystals), faster engines, twin blasters, and even a super bomb. Clear out one whole sector and get ready to face: Mukor!

Mukor must be the half brother of Sinistar or something, the two are very similar. Both have delusions of grandeur, thinking they "own the galaxy". Both shout insults at the player (Puny Earth scum is weak!) while trying to eat them. Mukor is the re-occuring boss in this game, becoming a little harder each time by adding more enemy tubes to be blown off.

Blasteroids is a fun little ditty to play, especially if you liked the original. There is much repetition, but the game adds little new features or enemies as the difficulty increases to keep you going. Music is average, graphics are colorful, but the overall pull of Blasteroids is the fun. Just goes to show that keeping it simple with good play control still works.



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Here's the instruction screen, this pretty much says it all. I don't know what the bottom means about collecting more ships, maybe this is in the HARD or EXPERT difficulty.

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How can you rule all galaxies while floating around in space? Wouldn't one or two rebel without the iron hand of leadership close by? To defeat Mukor, you have to shoot all the enemy tubes (which launch enemies) before running out of energy. Easy to do if he has only 3 or 4 tubes, but 9? Eugh….

 

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If you ever wake up and see this view, get out of the way, because you passed out under the space shuttle.

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Here's where you map out your progression through the galaxy. Only one square at a time in any direction.

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The blue "rocks" freeze in place where you hit them, and the turtle guy steals your powerups. Nasty guy, that one.

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Here I've collected lots of powerups. The problem is that they disappear after you use them a short while. It'd be nice to have twin blasters the whole game, but oh well…

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"You have cleared the galaxy of Ricky Martin, to the shouts and praise of people everywhere!" SPAMPEROOS!

(BWAHAHA! - Akira)

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After destroying all the 'roids in an area, this portal opens up to take you to the next level.

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Here's the floating space-bugger himself. Run, coward!

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Not bad for a day's work.

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I always wondered why people would put their names in, only to have them wiped out when the power is shut off at the end of the day. Arcade units should have save boards (some of them do…..) so that our achievements can be immortalized forever…..wait, nobody really cares about points anymore anyway, just finishing the game. Never mind.

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Great game here mate. I still have to try this version though. Stardust for Amiga reminds me of Blasteroids. The level select system, the power ups, souped up graphics... I should do that review once and for all =P

HEY! And what do you mean saying that the scores on arcade machines are not saved? You mean that I wasted my whole life and funds trying to put my initials on those dreaded machines? =)

- Akira



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