Game Review: Dark Star (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

Dark Star was one of a series of games made with The Games Creator, but had up to three releases.  The original release was on the ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) label, and then reissued on Hitech Games Plus and then it was handed over to Mastertronic for a second reissue.  The story inside the inlay is the same as the original.  In effect, you are on a suicide mission to destroy the Dark Star once and for all – as a sky eagle of the Jupiton Fleet, you accept this mission with the Dark Star itself being the size of a planet.  You should head to the core and blast that with your rockets.   Of course, all of that just means it is a space shooter – well, sort of.

My Rising Star

After the initial load with the instructions and story, when the main game loads, it immediately commences resulting in a very quick death.  At least that gives you the chance to start again, but surely some form of “press fire to start” would have been useful?   As you start, you can straight away see the concept – the dark star is set in space with certain areas in grey being the borders which you cannot touch.  If you do that – instant game over.  If any of the ships hit you – also instant game over.  And if a bullet hits you – you can guess what happens here.  Yes, instant game over.  The unforgiving nature does mean you will need a lot of patience and perseverance to get far.

Starry Starry Night

Whilst you can appreciate that the suicide mission as detailed in the story line means one life effectively, that would be fine if not for the seemingly random appearances of enemy space ships and having to ensure you learn the path of the Dark Star itself, and the right direction to avoid being trapped with the background all around you and nowhere to go. That can take some time to work out what to do, but you may find that a random enemy appearing or with a stray bullet, especially when fired from the sides, puts you in a position that you cannot escape from – and yes, it is game over.  That can prove to be frustrating for some as there seems to be less of a regular pattern to at least work out what to do.

She’s (Not) a Star

Whilst playing, you may have also noted the music.  And yes, it is effectively a slowed down version of the same music from version two of BMX Racers.  Feel free to sing “not a tune in any way at all” for the last bit, as it really is not a tune to be honest.  That also does not give you any feeling of being in space and battling the enemies either.  The enemies themselves are either birds which are right out of the game Pheonix swooping down, some creature that shoots from the side and an enemy craft that tends to home in on you quickly if on the same path as yourself.  But the random appearances of them can sometimes be at the wrong time, and yes, game over.

Blackstar

In addition to all of that, the game seems to chug along at a slow pace, not helped by the background graphics which seem to slow things down – more so when compared to the speed of some of the enemies coming at you.  That would be fine if some of the diagonal paths were not so narrow, giving you not much room to steer your ship into the next safe area as you move along.  There is always a stray bullet appearing that is not fired from any of the on-screen ships on occasion too, which does not help matters.  If you do manage to get far and hit a random placed enemy that is no fault of your own – game over once again.  Clearly, this is unforgivable.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Dark Star range from half decent, with the animated birds at least having a few frames, from poor in terms of the background of the Dark Star especially, looking like it was all made in PETSCII characters.  The scrolling is laughable – smooth scrolling was a de facto standard even then, and really makes the game chug along more than it should.  The music as mentioned is dreadful, and the sound effects are only adequate – the firing of your bullets and the crashing white noise sound as you inevitably lose the only life you have and it is game over once again.

Final Thoughts

Dark Star is milking the proverbial Games Creator cash cow for all that it was worth, and that sits uncomfortably with me.  If the game was actually any good, you may forgive its origins, but not enough attention to detail and care was put into this game, meaning that the one life you have can be lost very quickly without no fault of your own, or if you do manage to get far enough, one wrong move along the Dark Star can also be game over too.  Standards had already improved in Commodore 64 games and this was way below an acceptable standard even back then.  Risible.  Terrible.  Avoid.

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