Game Review: Challenger (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

The game Blitz, originally based on Atari’s Canyon Raider, was released on the Vic-20 in 1981, and Mastertronic also released a Blitz clone for the Vic-20 as New York Blitz.  In those versions, both were static screens with a plane moving across in waves to destroy the city.  Fast forward on to 1984 and Challenger enters the fray.  The plot is that ten cities have been ravaged by filth and disease by savages, intent on spreading a deadly virus.  You must use your fighter, with limited fuel, to destroy the city whilst avoiding the enemies’ missiles and land safely once the city has been destroyed.   In effect, it is Blitz, but on few more steroids as you will see.

We Built This City

The game does have a reasonable loading screen that does its best to mimic the cassette inlay, and on loading, the game goes into a demonstration mode to show you what the game is about.  Although the score display at the top in PETSCII does smack of a game made with The Games Creator, there are some differences, such as the fact there is not any repetitive music, no speeding up between levels and the scrolling is smooth (which Games Creator games were not.)  This mode gives you an idea of the city to be destroyed and the enemy missiles coming at your fighter (which in truth looks more like a space shuttle) as well as the take off at the start of the level.

Take Me Down to Paradise City

There are ten cities in all to destroy, each with their own characteristics for the arrangement of the buildings to blitz.  In order they are Vancouver, Seattle (misspelled with one t in the game), Mexico City, Brasilia, Tokyo, New Delhi, Brussels, Luxembourg, Cardiff, and Louisiana.  Mexico City for example has lower rise buildings but more grouped together as housing, whereas Seattle has lots of taller standing tower blocks.  If you have played a Blitz type game, you will know the aim is simple: destroy the city by firing your missiles in a way to hit the buildings. Destroy all of them and the whole city, and it is on to the next level.

Love Missile F1-11

You can move your fighter left or right as you descend so you can get a more accurate aim on the buildings of the city to destroy, which helps with the timing too – and to avoid the enemy missiles from below, which come at you thick and fast.  One good touch is that you can fire another missile downwards whenever you like – but if the previous one has not hit anything, it gets cancelled when you fire.  The key here is to use that feature wisely to ensure you can hit an enemy missile if it gets close to you, and that can help you progress. Naturally destroying the taller buildings of the city gives you more time to hit the ones with lower height as you descend.  If you manage it, your fighter lands, then takes off for the next city – and it is here when you most notice it looks like a space shuttle.

Nightmare At 20,000 ft

Each level gets progressively more difficult with the missiles coming at you more regularly and with several at once.  The key here is not to use the left side of the screen unless you really need to – and that gives you a good chance to avoid the missiles and work a way to manoeuvre around them too.  Keep aiming the missiles down, and you will get far.  I managed to get to New Delhi after a few games which indicates the difficulty level is about right, and getting through all ten cities should pose a good challenge as does getting the high score – taller buildings score more, as does destroying the enemy missiles too.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Challenger are very simplistic.  The enemy missiles are reasonable and come at your fighter smoothly, and the smooth scrolling of the city which wraps around as you look to destroy it gives the game much more of an arcade feel overall.  The explosions are okay but nothing to write home about, and the cities themselves are drawn at least so they are recognisable, even with trees on the ground too.  It may have been sensible to make the border colour black to look nicer though.  Sound consists of just white noise sound effects for you firing your missile and the explosions, and that is all you get for this one.

Final Thoughts

Challenger may seem on the surface a very simple game, but it has taken Blitz and developed it a little more, with some good options to move left and right to avoid the enemy fire as you descend, and a good use of allowing you to fire your weapon as you need to, instead of waiting for the bullet to land. Those tweaks certainly make it a much more playable game and a better experience, and although may not be for everyone, does at least give you a good challenge to destroy all ten cities and get a high score. It also shows that improving the gameplay does speak volumes for how gamers wanted more value for money, even at £1.99, and this game certainly gives reasonable value.

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