Astro Battle

Synopsis

by Earl Green

Astro Battle puts players at the controls of a space fighter battling off wave after wave of alien attackers, each group of which has its own precise patterns of movement. While this would seem to be setting the aliens up for a turkey shoot, the odds aren't in the player's favor: his ship uses fuel for both flying and firing lasers, and the laser gun itself can overheat. If the laser hits a critical temperature, it's out of commission temporarily, leaving the player to dodge incoming fire. The fuel factor is even more vital -- no matter how many "lives" may be left, since emptying the fuel tank ends the game. The player must patiently wait for a target before firing, make judicious use of the time-slowing "warp" button, and try to survive long enough to dock with a support ship and refuel. It's fun, but Astro Battle is one of the most unforgiving and difficult entries in the early crop of slide-and-shoot games.

Astro Battle is an arcade game that will seem very familiar to Atari VCS veterans, even though it was never directly ported to that console. Many of the game's play mechanics (though in a simpler form) made their way into an early Activision hit, MegaMania, though MegaMania players had it much easier at home since they didn't have to worry about the laser overheating. But then again, they were blowing dice and hamburgers out of the sky.

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