Game Review: Space Walk – Version 1 (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

Space Walk, Commodore 64, Mastertronic - 1C0006
  • 1/10
    Score - 1/10
1/10

Summary

Space Walk was made with The Games Creator, and it shows.  For this first version, there are numerous issues with the gameplay, and it is more luck than skill whether you can correctly land the satellite into your space shuttle due to the very precise nature of where you need to land it.  The random placement of the astronauts and planets to avoid means that it becomes dull and often frustrating, and the fact that the second level ramps up the difficulty along with the satellite almost crashing to earth straight away means that it becomes not very much fun to play at all.  The second version would improve some things a little.

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Space Walk was, as with other early releases programmed by Richard and David Darling, was made with their own The Games Creator, a popular utility at the time to design games.  What is notable here is that there are two versions of the game.  This is a review of the first release – this has the slow blue screen loader which has some text instructions along with a sparser backdrop compared to the second release (which was based on the disk version and uses the Burner loader) – and as a result feels like it was a first effort or even a work in progress.

You’re Looking at Planet Earth

You are in control of a space shuttle, and you need to retrieve some stray satellites that may be orbiting around you.  You will need to battle your way through the space, using your jet pack to have a rendezvous with the satellite, and guide it, carefully, into the cargo hold of the shuttle.  If the satellite crashes on the planet – that is immediately game over, no matter how many lives that you have left    There are also enemy astronauts to shoot, along with planets to avoid – a lookalike of Earth being in the first one, and a faster second planet from the second level onwards.

Landing Lunacy

Straight way from the opening level, you can spot a number of problems with the playability.  First of all, the margin of error you have to land the satellite on the cargo hold (the flat part of the top of your shuttle, close to the nose) is very thin, and you really do need to be precise to make sure it is landed.  One slight joystick movement to redirect the satellite, and it will inevitably miss the target and it is too late to recover that beforehand.

In addition, on later levels the satellite starts hurtling down the screen towards the planet, and to reset its direction you either need to deliberately lose a life or try and steer it left by some careful guidance, and then see if you can get it down that way.  It would be sensible if the satellite started at the top middle, so you could guide it as you needed as it starts to descend.  But none of that here, sadly.

Planetary Piffle

The next playability problem stems from the second planet that comes on screen from the second level onwards – this does tend to whizz around quite a bit, and often more at random, so you do need to keep your wits around you to avoid that as you aim to get to the satellite.  However, the placement sometimes means you cannot avoid it from your starting position and immediately lose a life through no fault of your own.  Not the best game design here and does add to the random nature of it all.

In addition, the two astronauts do not always appear – on the first level, you only see them if you crash into the planet.  On the second level they are present, and both must be shot as well as landing the satellite to complete the level, but the firing is also at random intervals too, so you cannot time your jet pack hover to get up and shoot the astronaut.  If there is a fast interval of two shots fired, you have absolutely no chance of avoiding the bullet, and it is another life lost.  While you do have four lives, these can go very quickly.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Space Walk are not very good.  Whilst the planet surface is defined with the shuttle in white being pleasant enough, the planet graphics of the two whizzing planets are pretty bad, along with the poor definition of the astronauts.  Sound is limited to effects during play but if you complete the level, a tune does play at a very quick speed and you must listen to it before the next level commences, you cannot press fire to skip.  It has all the hallmarks of the one channel cacophonies of the sound editing capabilities that The Games Creator had at that time.

Final Thoughts

Version one of Space Walk is a sub-standard game, even for budget standards, that clearly needed a lot more testing and improvement of quality before it should have been released.  The fact that the second version exists shows that gamers were not alone in thinking that.  It feels unfair, random and somewhat unplayable at times because of that, and together with the rather precise landing mechanism for the satellite, does not hold the attention for very long.  Definitely one for completists only, I am afraid.

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