Anyone who has ever played Atari is remotely familiar with Asteroids, the line-based arcade that was so popular they need bigger coin boxes. As such, Asteroids became the latest in a long line of popular arcade games to be ported to a whole bunch of consoles, most notably the long-popular Atari 2600 VCS and the under-appreciated Atari 7800 ProSystem, which is the version we’re covering today.
The 7800 version of Asteroids, developed in 1984 but released in 1987, retains the leisurely-yet-frantic gameplay mechanics of the arcade original (already a step up over the 2600 version) and takes it a step further by replacing the outlined space rocks of the arcade game (or the blobs of the 2600 version) with brand-new animated space rocks, complete with different colors and their own surface craters. While this doesn’t add to the gameplay at all, it’s an admittedly nice touch to the package and the new asteroids do animate rather smoothly.
The sound in this game does take a hit. While they really tried to make this game distinguishable from the 2600 version by adding a couple “alien-like” sound effects into the mix, the poor sound quality really fails to bring that otherworldly feel to the game. Unfortunately, this is a flaw with almost all 7800 games, which uses the sound processing of the 2600-based hardware.
Other than that, it’s your usual fare of Asteroids fun, where you guide your spaceship around and blast away at all the asteroids, with each hit splitting the bigger rocks into smaller ones (leaving behind small bits of debris with each hit – nice touch!) until they’re at the smallest and fastest. Clear the current wave of space rocks and a new set appears so that the fun never ends… until your timely demise. As before, the UFOs will appearances and attack you, but you can attack back for bonus points! For the most part, the controls are responsive and serviceable. You’ll probably jump into hyperspace by accident at times by pressing down, but other than that, the game’s fully playable even with the stock 7800 controller.
There’s also a difficulty select; a feature that is standard on most 7800 games, but a nice feature nonetheless. If a game is too hard for you on the default difficulty, bring it down a notch. No one will know.
Overall, Asteroids is a nice little rendition of an arcade classic and an extremely fun game that is easy to get into without much fuss. While the limited controls does hinder the game somewhat, it doesn’t ruin it and it’s not always an issue. If you enjoyed the Asteroids arcade game and own a 7800, then this is a no-brainer purchase. Recommended.
BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 8/10 (smooth animation of those asteroids, looks good too)
Sound: 6/10 (tolerable but not great – downside to all 7800 games)
Gameplay: 9/10 (superb gameplay, controls good but not perfect)
Challenge: 8/10 (includes skill select, moderately challenging)
Replay Value: 7/10 (good for quick fix, never gets old)
OVERALL: 8/10
dtm666 