Reviews from

in the past


Started playing this with the intention of beating it and I almost made it but after a few hours the emulator stopped working. It's a compelling little frustrating game, it really makes you want to memorize the paterns and all. I can see how this influenced later shoot-em-ups. Also feels like it predates that whole gameplay loop of later super hard 8bit games

i think that i have worms in brain now :)

Just started playing Shmups...I got a lot of catching up to do

Thank you to backloggd user DJSCheddar for suggesting I start my journey of playing these things with the apparently first space shooter to have scrolling and actual levels, wow. Incredible. Big fan of how the bombs move with you while you move so they're a real bitch to aim, funny stuff. Cool as a historical curio and not much else

Relogging this for the vectex however,

This is one of four games I've played on original hardware, there is a strange wizardry to playing games on original hardware, even stuff as old as the atari just feels NEW when it's in your hands for real.

I'm amazed multiple types of weapons didn't become standard in shmups sooner. Here it doesn't have a very thrilling effect on gameplay, but it adds at least a bit of depth as you have to manage both ground-to-air enemies, hitting fuel depots, and the stuff in front of you. The levels all feel pretty similar, and the art style is middling at best.

[Finalizado no Arcade e no Vectrex]

Scramble é basicamente um Gradius mais arcaico sem o sistema da barra de upgrade e tendo de atingir pontos de combustível para não cair. Com um foco muito grande no desvio de obstáculos.

Falando assim parece péssimo, e eu colocaria dessa forma a versão de Arcade. No arcade o game é muito mais complicado, com o combustível em lugares chatos, inimigos pior posicionados e trechos diferentes de outras versões.

Agora pelo Vectrex esse game parece até uma hidden gem. O visual é pior obviamente, a não ser que você seja fã desse estilo gráfico de linhas em fundo preto. Colocar as películas na tela ajuda bastante nesse ponto, dando ao menos mais cor. E eu pessoalmente gosto mais desse estilo minimalista.

Mas o que realmente muda tudo para melhor é o gameplay e level design. A nave é bem melhor de controlar e o cenário e local de cada coisinha parece ter sido melhor pensado. O jogo fica mais fácil, porém melhor equilibrado e o desafio ainda está ali.

Minha nota no site fica para o Vectrex, com o arcade levando 2 estrelinhas. Só não aumento a nota pois acho que em comparação a outros shooters tem coisa melhor. Mas ainda é um jogo divertido.

This is one of the first horizontal shmups of all time... released on a vertical screen, at least they tried.

Some of these older games really are too hard to review.
I mean it's certainly fun for about 30 seconds. I'm sure if you encounter a scramble machine in the wild it'd be a fascinating case of nostalgia for something you've never played before.