Zaxxon

The first of the great 'space air force' games.

User Rating: 10 | Jackson ARC

By Lokar | Review Date: July 7, 2006

You are the pilot of a craft sent to infiltrate and destroy the headquarters fortress of the evil overlords. Laser fire rains on you from towers, the gates are crackling with electric juice and good luck zig-zagging through the sluice barriers that await further down the line. Cannons and missiles pop up to block your path. Radar keeps an eye on you so that even when you think you've slipped past the most dogged obstacles...you probably haven't. Deviate anywhere from the limited path open to you, and you find your ship turning into a shower of sparks.

The enemy does not forgive.

Zaxxon's graphics may seem downright primitive today, but its simplicity is part of its appeal. It required the player to actually think, to remember the challenges as they came along and stockpile a list of convenient ways to get around them. Forget anything, and goodbye. Today, most games give you supplies of health points you can replenish; with Zaxxon, it was your wits and the steering stick, with spare lives few and far between, earned only by long battles; and that's about all.

As far as I know, this game has yet to make its way onto any classics compilation for the home systems. That's a shame.