Rare is so washed
A tricky little bugger that got a lot of 90s kids back in DK64 where this game was required to progress. Not me though, for I didn't have DK64. I instead got Rare Replay in 2023 for the true "grown ass man playing 40 year old video games what are you doing with your life" experience.
Jetpac involves collecting ship parts and fuel while avoiding enemies. Your shot is really long, covering a whole screen and even wraps around, so constantly shooing left and right usually has you covered, but you're still vulnerable from above. The enemies range from simple to unpredictable, and will always spawn from the edges (making wrapping around the screen always a risk). Shoutouts to the UFOs that are small, unpredictable, and fast. Screw U-FO.
It's fun floating around the middle top of the level swinging left to right like a boss from a more modern game, but I do wish there were more level layouts, in kind of like a Balloon Fight fashion. Then I'd have more to think about as I charge on.
My native no cheating high score is 30,000 so if I become "Grown ass man who plays the banana cartridge what are you doing with your life" guy, that Rareware coin is as good as mine.
Jetpac involves collecting ship parts and fuel while avoiding enemies. Your shot is really long, covering a whole screen and even wraps around, so constantly shooing left and right usually has you covered, but you're still vulnerable from above. The enemies range from simple to unpredictable, and will always spawn from the edges (making wrapping around the screen always a risk). Shoutouts to the UFOs that are small, unpredictable, and fast. Screw U-FO.
It's fun floating around the middle top of the level swinging left to right like a boss from a more modern game, but I do wish there were more level layouts, in kind of like a Balloon Fight fashion. Then I'd have more to think about as I charge on.
My native no cheating high score is 30,000 so if I become "Grown ass man who plays the banana cartridge what are you doing with your life" guy, that Rareware coin is as good as mine.
I’ve played this one before, within Donkey Kong 64. However, I only played it in the way required to get the Rare Coin and then moved on. It was just an obstacle in DK64 and I didn’t really look into it for its own merits.
Playing it through Rare Replay, and I’ve realised that Jetpac is probably among my favourite classic score-based arcade games. Your goal is simple to understand without needing further instructions: collect parts of the rocket, fill it with fuel, and avoid being hit by enemies. Once you fill the rocket up, you step inside and move to the next screen and repeat (although for the next three levels you just fuel your rocket, then get a new one to build every 4th screen).
The player movement is incredibly smooth, which helps to make it really good fun. Each screen will also have a different enemy type which move in different ways, but you only get one type per screen which makes predicting how enemies will move something fairly easy.
Jetpac is a classic which is overlooked. I think it’s especially impressive that this was limited to home computer restraints, and not the beefier arcade cabinets at the time.
My “completion” of this was to complete all four stages of rockets (the suggested milestone in the game) and completing all the Rare Replay snapshots. The snapshots has some interesting challenges and felt quite fair, I quite liked the simplicity of completing 5 “laps” of the screen.
Playing it through Rare Replay, and I’ve realised that Jetpac is probably among my favourite classic score-based arcade games. Your goal is simple to understand without needing further instructions: collect parts of the rocket, fill it with fuel, and avoid being hit by enemies. Once you fill the rocket up, you step inside and move to the next screen and repeat (although for the next three levels you just fuel your rocket, then get a new one to build every 4th screen).
The player movement is incredibly smooth, which helps to make it really good fun. Each screen will also have a different enemy type which move in different ways, but you only get one type per screen which makes predicting how enemies will move something fairly easy.
Jetpac is a classic which is overlooked. I think it’s especially impressive that this was limited to home computer restraints, and not the beefier arcade cabinets at the time.
My “completion” of this was to complete all four stages of rockets (the suggested milestone in the game) and completing all the Rare Replay snapshots. The snapshots has some interesting challenges and felt quite fair, I quite liked the simplicity of completing 5 “laps” of the screen.
I'd played this years ago when I had to as part of Donkey Kong 64, but I definitely had more fun revisiting this as part of Rare Replay. Probably in part because I'm much older now and have more respect for gaming's roots (even if I know very little about the ZX Spectrum), and probably because Jetpac feels like a lot more of a non sequitur in the context of DK64 than Arcade Donkey Kong does, as cute as it is to juxtapose early Nintendo with early Rare.
My main point of comparison for this era of gaming is the Commodore 64 (which I'm also largely unfamiliar with), so I dunno how common a takeaway this is, but man - even early on, you could do some nice things graphically with the ZX Spectrum. Colors are pretty limited (the Stampers made it a space game because the background was guaranteed to be black, I'm sure), but man getting those yellows and purples and reds on the spritework is something to see. I love the entirely superfluous detail of a cloud of exhaust steaming up whenever you jet off the ground. And the effects of the lasers, eventually trailing into dots, is a pretty neat effect.
I like how the game feels, too. There's good variety to the stage loops - 8 enemies with largely different movement patters across 16 stages makes for a good sense of flow as you learn the game. And I like how Jetman controls. Like there's a good sense of momentum in midair, freeing compared to how slow he is on the ground. And sometimes you have to make that decision of if you're gonna run away from an alien on the ground, or if you're gonna risk hopping into the air to get out of the way since, while that brings you closer to the alien, it's a lot faster, and you juuuuust might be able to time it right. A lot of games from this time are very basic in their controls, so it's always neat to see something where the character feels good to control.
It's funny, I know Sabre Wulf is the game from this era that would have more of a legacy for Ultimate Play the Game, but there's something to be said for how strong of an opening act Jetpac was. Still very much worth revisiting today.
My main point of comparison for this era of gaming is the Commodore 64 (which I'm also largely unfamiliar with), so I dunno how common a takeaway this is, but man - even early on, you could do some nice things graphically with the ZX Spectrum. Colors are pretty limited (the Stampers made it a space game because the background was guaranteed to be black, I'm sure), but man getting those yellows and purples and reds on the spritework is something to see. I love the entirely superfluous detail of a cloud of exhaust steaming up whenever you jet off the ground. And the effects of the lasers, eventually trailing into dots, is a pretty neat effect.
I like how the game feels, too. There's good variety to the stage loops - 8 enemies with largely different movement patters across 16 stages makes for a good sense of flow as you learn the game. And I like how Jetman controls. Like there's a good sense of momentum in midair, freeing compared to how slow he is on the ground. And sometimes you have to make that decision of if you're gonna run away from an alien on the ground, or if you're gonna risk hopping into the air to get out of the way since, while that brings you closer to the alien, it's a lot faster, and you juuuuust might be able to time it right. A lot of games from this time are very basic in their controls, so it's always neat to see something where the character feels good to control.
It's funny, I know Sabre Wulf is the game from this era that would have more of a legacy for Ultimate Play the Game, but there's something to be said for how strong of an opening act Jetpac was. Still very much worth revisiting today.
Only here because I'm playing DK64. A pretty hard but rather fun game.
Joust adapted to be a shooter.
Best minigame in DK64 of all time.
What a neat little game.
Honestly, an absolute Banger, especially considering it's a 1983 home release. Jetpac never garnered much attention it seems. It's not in any top sellers list from 1983 and with garbage like Atari Pac-Man as competition this is just unfortunate. Being only available on the Commodore VIC-20, BBC Microcomputer System and the ZX Spectrum probably didn't help much.
This is a bummer, because I really think the game's a little gem. Tight controls, simple and rewarding gameplay, very charming visuals and fantastic enemy variety for the time. There are like 6 different enemy types, with different behavioral patterns and individual sprites. That shit must have blown some 1983 minds. You even have four different spaceships to assemble, all looking unique. I know this sounds almost comical today. But back in the day, this was the kind of stuff that kept people hooked. To find out if there is a fifth spaceship to assemble. There isn't, but that's not the point.
My main gripes are the lack of music (which is probably due to hardware limitations, but I can't be sure since I'm not a ZX Spectrum nerd) and the busted scoring system. Scoring in Jetpac is essentially a non factor since any stage can be played indefinitely, there is no time limit. The respawn pattern of some enemies can be easily exploited, and they can be easily killed for an infinite amount of points.
Now I still tried my hand at an honest high score, I reached 168,845 points, in case anybody want to see me in Jetpac.
Give it a go, it's a fun little diversion for a few minutes of free time.
Honestly, an absolute Banger, especially considering it's a 1983 home release. Jetpac never garnered much attention it seems. It's not in any top sellers list from 1983 and with garbage like Atari Pac-Man as competition this is just unfortunate. Being only available on the Commodore VIC-20, BBC Microcomputer System and the ZX Spectrum probably didn't help much.
This is a bummer, because I really think the game's a little gem. Tight controls, simple and rewarding gameplay, very charming visuals and fantastic enemy variety for the time. There are like 6 different enemy types, with different behavioral patterns and individual sprites. That shit must have blown some 1983 minds. You even have four different spaceships to assemble, all looking unique. I know this sounds almost comical today. But back in the day, this was the kind of stuff that kept people hooked. To find out if there is a fifth spaceship to assemble. There isn't, but that's not the point.
My main gripes are the lack of music (which is probably due to hardware limitations, but I can't be sure since I'm not a ZX Spectrum nerd) and the busted scoring system. Scoring in Jetpac is essentially a non factor since any stage can be played indefinitely, there is no time limit. The respawn pattern of some enemies can be easily exploited, and they can be easily killed for an infinite amount of points.
Now I still tried my hand at an honest high score, I reached 168,845 points, in case anybody want to see me in Jetpac.
Give it a go, it's a fun little diversion for a few minutes of free time.
We have you surrounded, come get your Rareware coin!!!