Asteroids, the space adventure. In Space!!!

User Rating: 9.3 | Asteroids 2600
By Digital_Nachos | Review Date:
There were a few years when I was very young that I didn’t have any of the current generation consoles. Not because I didn’t care for gaming or that we couldn’t afford it. Just that my parents insisted that I had no need for anything new when I had a Commodore 64 and i used to play my friends Atari 2600 all the time. So I was about 10 years out of date when I was 5 years old. This obviously led to teasing on the school playground, I didn’t really care though. I was happy with what I had and the one game that gave me the most entertainment was indeed my friends copy of Asteroids. Now when I was 5 years old I couldn’t really play asteroids very well, but that didn’t matter it gave me a lot of fun. I always wanted to be an astronaut and this was the best I could get to it. I remember spending days trying to beat my score zapping the odd coloured space rocks.

Asteroids then is a game where you control a small pink triangle space ship. You press down the space button and you fire space bullets. The aim of the game is to destroy all of the space asteroids that are floating around in the space. However it is not as easy as that, the space rock, when hit will space break into smaller space pieces. The large rock will halve into 2 smaller rocks and then they will also break into 2 smaller halves. These small ones will then space vaporize when hit. I remember the really small rocks can be quite nasty to actually hit. Once you have destroyed all the rocks you get a new wave of even more large rocks, and this is the basic space formula that goes on forever. When you get further however the more UFO encounters you are likely to have. The UFO would eventually hit you with its bullets, its inevitable. I used to get so space scared once I heard the high pitch squeal belonging to the UFO and my space tactic (which failed a lot of the time, but it was the best I could do) was to just charge at the UFO franticly hammering fire.

The games controls are very simple and handle beautifully, movement with the stick and fire with the button. That’s pretty much all I can say about that, it works really well. The graphics are average, not good even for the 2600. Its simple but it runs smooth and nicely. I can’t complain there is nothing really wrong with them except all the colours being strange. The sound then of this game I thought was really good. Yeah, its all bleep bleep sounds yet the high-pitched UFO sounds still keeps me awake at night to this day.

I still really enjoy playing this game today; I’m a heck of a lot better than I was back then. I think asteroids has a great replay value because you are always wanting to get better and better high scores. I would recommend it to everyone today, a true classic and an almost perfect game. One of my most beloved games.

I did eventually get my Megadrive that Christmas, so the bullying ended and it all turned out ok.

Other Helpful Reviews for Asteroids

  • Rating:8.3

    It's just like being at the Arcade, just no quarters!!

    By Warfust | Review Date: Jun 16, 2006 | 2600

    While this is an old-school game even by Atari 2600 standards, it works well on that platform and provides a very fun experience. The play is the same as you (may) remember at the Arcades, your in a small spaceship bl... Read Full Review

    10 of 11 users found the following review helpful
  • Rating:9

    classic mother fu#$@^

    By Kingmoonraiser | Review Date: Jan 07, 2008 | 2600

    the title is all i need to express how I feel. I loved back then, but of course it looks like a piece of shit nowadays. It's like the original kings quest. It was programmed by like 3 people. As graphics get better, w... Read Full Review

    2 of 2 users found the following review helpful
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