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.
Being that the Atari 2600 is an underpowered machine by the time it became really, really popular, it would be impossible to bring the pure Asteroids arcade experience over to the woodgrain console. So rather than white outlines, the asteroids are now solid colors that vertically in a single direction. While this isn’t necessarily a huge game-breaker, it does make the game less fun and actually quite easy once you get the hang of it and learn the pattern of the asteroids. Of course, back when this was first released, it probably would be considered the best thing ever. Nowadays… not so much. I mean, it feels more like Asteroids Jr – nowhere near as developed as its bigger arcade brother.
Graphically speaking, it’s simple fair. Like I said, everything in the game are now solid objects as opposed to white outlines, which is nice because I prefer blasting solid objects over white outlines. However, there’s virtually no animation; asteroids move in place without ever rotating or anything and UFOs are single-frame affairs. The only semblance of animation is when you’re changing your fighter’s direction. Also, your score and lives display is displayed in such huge block numbers that it almost takes up the entire top of the screen. Good for people with poor vision, bad for people who are easily distracted by big numbers during an intense round of Asteroids.
On the plus side, the sound is fairly good and bares a nice rendition of the Asteroids “theme”. In all honesty, though, I think I find this to be a better iteration than on the 7800 version, which came after and did a better job of recreating the arcade experience. Controls seem to be responsive as well despite the lack of buttons on the 2600 joystick, so there’s really no complaints in that regards. The game is completely playable and that’s what counts.
In conclusion, Asteroids on the 2600 is a fairly good game for what it’s worth, but really pales in comparison to the many other iterations out there. Unless you have absolutely NO other console that bares a version of the game, it’s probably worth a purchase. Otherwise, there are better versions of Asteroids to be found and you needn’t waste your money on this one unless you’re an avid collector. It’s still a decent game, but not the best one out there.
BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 5/10 (colorful rocks, huge numbers, not lively enough)
Sound: 7/10 (simple background drone gets annoying, but sound is okay)
Gameplay: 7/10 (controls fine, but game not varied enough)
Challenge: 6/10 (not as frantic as arcade version, but alright)
Replay Value: 3/10 (quickly gets old after a couple rounds)
OVERALL: 6/10
dtm666 