Definitely an upgrade on base Asteroids, even if it's not as iconic by consequence. Hyperspace and the distinct triangle spaceship are dearly missed, but Shield makes for a much more strategic defensive option, and honestly that spaceship vector is pretty solid. Starting with TWO lives instead of the THREE lives that was the standard even by '81 is disorienting, but it's mostly a question of resource management. Those 10,000 points for a new ship aren't too far away if you can play consistently; just a matter of getting there.

The Killer Satellite is a cool cool addition here, adding a lot more strategic weight to how the player paces out waves of asteroids. Since Killer Satellites only spawn towards the end of a wave, and since they're worth a lot of points, it's sometimes worth leaving a lone chunk or two of asteroid so the game will spawn one or two more; at the same time, the Killer Satellites aren't pure gimmes to the player, since you still have to worry about shooting them all apart, making sure you're keeping track of where the pieces are, keeping ahead of them OR timing it right when evading them, and monitoring for asteroid chunks/flying saucers. Quite a lot of moment-to-moment thinking the player's doing, on top of the original game's consolidation of early innovations. This one holds up quite well.