Mastertronic
Cassette
£1.99
1 player
1 joystick
Can you destroy the isolated asteroid fortress of
inter-galactic arch-villain Argon and put a stop to his evil antics
once and for all? You can find out by purchasing POWERDOWN, a game
which comes from the keyboard of Graham Askew. If the name sounds
familiar, that's because his work has appeared in past issues of
PAGE 6 (remember Gangsters and Supply Blaster?). He has now advanced
into the wonderful world of commercial programming with this game,
which adds to the ever-growing list of bargain titles from
Mastertronic, who are presently the most prolific publishers of
budget priced software for the Atari.
POWERDOWN is a game of the vertically scrolling
arcade genre combining a mild dose of the well-tested shoot 'em up
philosophy with a requirement for strategic skill, a degree of
dexterity and just a sprinkling of good fortune. Your aim is to
infiltrate the fortress, to destroy Argon and to shut down the power
source by manoeuvring your trusty space ship through numerous
screens (in your own time), negotiating the inevitable defence
system and zapping at appropriate moments.
Naturally, Argon's fortress is zealously guarded
against penetration by his invincible army of Argoniks together with
death rays, lasers, gunfire and combination locks. However, the
Argoniks turn out to be a blessing in disguise as they transform
solid white walls into zappable red ones. They can also be confined
to specific areas of the fortress by tactical opening and closing of
doors and are needed ultimately in order to gain access to Argon's
control room. `Shields' are also a necessity and their deployment is
crucial to success in the game. An ingenious and possibly unique
feature is the 'television scanner' that is used to discover a
combination lock code – it took me quite a while to figure out the
meaning behind this one! Although sixty minutes is the time limit
allowed, I managed to complete the mission in around half an hour
(real time) but not, I hasten to add, before a great deal of
practice and experimentation!
In a welcome departure from normal Mastertronic
policy, the instructions are very informative and I'd be more than
happy to see this practice adopted in their future releases (Mastertronic
are you listening?). Sound effects in the game aren't worth throwing
a party over, but they're on a par with the majority of recent
budget titles, and the graphics are very good indeed! Animation is
in abundance without any sacrifice to response time, the scrolling
is 'typical' Atari (superb) and there's plenty of colour and detail.
Although I could criticize the slightly irritating
delay encountered when obtaining a new ship and the lack of an abort
facility, these are really only insignificant points in a game
oozing with playability. What's more, POWERDOWN is thoroughly
addictive, reasonably challenging and if that isn't enough, will
only set you back a mere £1.99! I can't think of any better reasons
to immediately rush out and buy it, can you?
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