Game Review: Panther (Commodore 64, Entertainment USA)

Panther was the first of the Entertainment USA releases in a revised Mastertronic packaging for the label, so rather than have the stars and stripes across the cassette inlay, as the likes of Bump Set Spike had, they had a light background with all sorts of pastel squiggles that looked very 1980s then and even more so now.  The logo also says Entertainment USA with the “from Mastertronic” lettering dropped. In fact, this game, Street Surfer and Los Angeles SWAT also have sequential catalogue numbers, part of the standard 310 range, and without the USA prefix. So, it was definitely a changing of the label when this game was released.

The plot explains that you are the lone remaining pilot in the Federal Force, under attack in the city of Xenon. The alien invaders have swept away the defences, and there are still some people in the city, mainly military personnel, who must be rescued to safety. As you are the one who can fly the panther ground attack craft, hence the game’s name, you are the hero for today.  The Panther has five phoenix shields, which double as the number of lives effectively, and the shuttle for the people takes off at 0800 sharp, meaning you need to get there quick. The plot does give you an idea. Interestingly, as the game loads, the loading screen on most copies has the bottom right square coloured pink, but this has been fixed in some versions and indeed in some modern fixed cracks of the game too.

Steel Panther

Once the game has loaded, the music starts, which is an impressive piece by David Whittaker and sets the scene well. You will also note that the Panther craft looks nothing like the shape of said animal – it is more like a sardine tin with the inside pink part rotating around to simulate some sort of flight. The status display shows that the rescue mission is engaged, and you are straight off. There is no title screen to speak of, so once the game loads, you start straight away.  You start with the city in a dirt background and mines either side and railway tracks, and soon enough the waves of aliens arrive.

Your craft can change its elevation with up and down on the joystick – with aircraft controls, so down elevates and up descends. One additional touch is that you have a shadow underneath which gives you an indication of the height that you are at. As the alien craft also have these too, it does mean you can work out the height to fly at in order to eliminate them. The elevation also controls the speed the craft moves too, and you can land and stop in a safe are as needed. You will need to do that when you spot a bunker where the people are. Land, and they will come out to your craft, and the score increases well the more people you get on board.

Eyes of a Panther

The status display at the bottom of the screen shows the score, and a useful radar which gives you an indication when the alien attack waves are coming, and where they are in relation to you. It also indicates the number of lives remaining, how many aliens in the current attack wave need to be eliminated to defeat the wave, and the number of people rescued. The counter in particular is useful so you know how many aliens to defeat in a wave, and more so if you happen to be close to one of the bunkers when you do defeat a wave, and so you then can get as many rescued as possible.

Once over land, you then head over the sea, and this brings a different challenge. You cannot land on the sea or else you crash, so you have to stay some level of above ground. The only thing you can land on are what looks like piers where the people are stationed, and so can rescue them when you land on them. Taking off from there though can prove tricky occasionally, and you can lose one of your five lives, so well worth noting. After the sea, there is the difficulty of avoiding the radar and flying underneath that before being destroyed very quickly by missiles that fire at you at a speedy range. You literally have to be flying one inch above ground to avoid the radar, and then you have the ruined buildings to steer around, which brings its own challenges.

Walk Like a Panther

So, you have made it this far – and well done if you have. But more challenges await you. There is more of the sea to fly over, except this time you need to be wary of the plasma and avoid running into it, as well as the missiles that they aim at you. Flying at different heights and varying that can really help as otherwise it can be difficult to avoid either the plasma or the bullets, so speed is of the essence, and keep moving. Finally, you are back on dry land again with some final attack waves and some more people to rescue if needed. You then arrive at the shuttle, and landing here then means any people collected board the shuttle, with a hefty bonus awarded for each person, and then the game loops around back but with the attack waves continuing in difficulty from where you last left off, so if you had one with fourteen aliens, the next one with fifteen will be upon you.

Thankfully, in all this, your craft responds well to the joystick, and the movement is smooth, as is the scrolling. The difficulty can be getting trapped on one side of the play area as this can be quite narrow based on the way you fly diagonally, so useful ascents and descents can sometimes pay off. It seems that most of the aliens are easier killed at lower heights, and although that does mean you move the screen slower, you can at least fire well and hit them before they hit you. However, I found that keeping moving was absolutely key, and if you do not, then you will be toast, very quickly, and losing one of your precious five lives

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Panther are functional, but do at least scroll smoothly in an isometric view, with the landscapes and the ground objects being reasonably well defined. Your Panther craft looks more like a sardine tin, and may have needed better definition. The aliens and their firepower are well drawn and the use of the shadow to indicate the height of your Panther craft is really useful to determine what height to fly at to eliminate the alien attack waves. Needless to say, the music by David Whittaker is superb, and one of his finest Commodore 64 pieces. It has the right element of mood, almost doom-like, at the start, before bringing forward a more defiant uplifting mood with its tune as you progress. This of course was also produced on the Amiga for the Arcadia arcade game Sidewinder, and thus became an iconic early tune on that system because of it.

Final Thoughts

Panther may initially seem like a cross between Zaxxon and Choplifter, with the mission of rescuing people a noble one. Avoiding the aliens in the early stages seems easy enough, but the difficulty does get ramped up as you go along. The extra sections such as not being able to land on the sea unless on a small pier, avoiding the enemy radar by flying really low and avoiding the ruined buildings, and then avoiding the plasma, does make for a varied challenge. The further you do get into the game, the more you will get out of it, and although it can be difficult, it does reap its own rewards with practice and you will soon be able to progress nicely. The excellent music and the playability help considerably to make this a good value for money package, and the one more go factor is strong with this one.

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