Atari 2600
1981
When you think of a typical video game from the Atari era (otherwise know as “the arcade era”, depending on your perspective), the scenario that comes to mind likely involve invaders from space trying to kill you, if not your entire planet. Or you think of Pac-Man. Or Donkey Kong. Or maybe Frogger. However, my point is that back in the day, there were an ass-load of games based around planetary defense.
Laser Blast inverts that traditional setup, by putting the player in charge of the invaders. You control a flying saucer tasked with blasting planetary defense cannons with what I presume be lasers. The game gets mad style points for this clever switcheroo, but fails to score any gameplay points or fun points. Those are the more important points to score.
Blasting things with lasers should always be exciting, but not in this game. The action is far too easy, and dull to boot. Each screen consists of the exact same scenario: you try to destroy three cannons before they destroy you. This is very simple and surprisingly unfun.
In a nice touch, if you are shot down, you can control your descent, perhaps taking out a cannon as you die. So the game gets further style points, but in a game painfully lacking complexity, variance, or challenge, who really gives a crap?
Today, I played a single game of Laser Blast for about half an hour before my Atari crashed. This may have been the only time in my life that I have been grateful to have a game interrupted by spontaneous hardware failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment