Orbitron, Commodore 64, Mastertronic - IC0014
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3/10
Summary
Orbitron is yet another early Mastertronic release which was made by The Games Creator. Unlike some though, there is some playability to be had, with fluid movement and good responsiveness for your ship and those of the enemies. Some of the attack patterns can seem odd, but nonetheless there is some frenetic feeling to the game play even if the difficulty ramps up. However, the unfortunate placement of an ill-fitting piece of music puts you off from playing the game for too long.
User Review
( votes)Orbitron was made with the popular utility The Games Creator, and not by the Darling brothers – the identity of who made it remaining unknown. There are also two known versions of the loader for this game – one is the slow blank screen loader, the other the Burner loader (indicated in the top right of the cassette front cover) – but in this case, they are both the same game. You are the last fighter pilot left to defend Hyperion, your home planet. You need to move quickly to avoid the rotating star clusters with their deadly orbits and blast apart the death pods before they home in on you. If you haven’t already guessed from that plot, it is pure and simple a space-based shoot-em-up.
Hyperion Hype
Once the instructions have displayed and the game has loaded, the game starts straight away. Your ship is at the bottom of the screen, with enemy craft heading towards you, as well as what looks like comets heading towards you at some pace and killing you with the one hit. You also have the death pods which, depending on which level you are on, either zoom across and down from the top to the bottom, or head in a diagonal formation and make themselves difficult to avoid. Shooting these is key to completing the level although at least you can move up the screen to avoid them once they head so far down, with some gravity gradually taking you back towards the bottom – which is something to note.
Points Don’t Make Prizes
As you will see, the alien craft that come down tend to swoop a little from left to right, a la Phoenix, before making their way towards you, firing bullets down at some pace when they do. Add to that the comets to avoid and that does at least become quite frenetic at times as you endeavour to get further and score more with each go. The enemies are not that well animated but at least do move in a sensible fashion. What is odd though that the death pod that zooms across the first level left to right and downwards only scores a measly 50 points when hit – even though it is much harder to do so. There definitely should have been more rewards for that.
Sweating Bullets
You will definitely note that shooting down the craft of the same colour can help during play too – as after a certain number of those are shot, they do not respawn for some time. This allows you time to take out the other different coloured enemies and have less bullets to avoid when going in for the kill. It also makes some sense to try and head up the screen with the death pod heads towards you lower down as often an attempt to shoot (and miss) results in the loss of one of your three precious lives, with seemingly no extra being given.
Shoot If You Wanna Go Faster
When you do eventually have shot enough of the enemies, the game’s music speeds up in between the level (a usual Games Creator trait) and the second level starts. This time the ships zoom down vertically towards you at a very fast pace, and there is also the death pod which is shaped like a house brick bouncing around the diagonals. Shooting this early is useful so you can keep your eye on mainly avoiding action for the other ships, as the speed is just too quick for you to respond in a suitable time, most of the time, with some shots being more luck than judgement. The increase in difficulty feels very unfair.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics in Orbitron are functional – with your ship reasonably drawn and that of the enemies also. They do at least move quickly and smoothly, as does your ship, so there is that. The sound effects are bog standard explosion noises with a low drone when you fire your weapons. However, a really ill-fitting tune plays during the game – it sounds like it should be in a cute platform game instead of a space shooter, and really does feel out of place here. You will probably be sensible reaching for the volume control sooner rather than later for that reason.
Final Thoughts
Orbitron does at least have potential to be a reasonable game. The controls are at least responsive, and the pace of the game does give it a frenetic feel as you progress. There is at least a high score challenge to aim at, albeit a limited one, and the increase in difficulty level is very noticeable. However, it is recommended to play this one with the sound down as the music does not suit the game whatsoever. If a different tune had been used, the game may have scored slightly higher. If you do want an early arcade shoot-em-up from Mastertronic on the Commodore 64, Spectipede is a much better offering.
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