Planet Smashers (Atari 7800) Review – The new Atari VCS – Mockduck Plays Games
Because you were unable to stop the invading alien
hordes, the Earth has been subjected to total
annihilation. This is the message Planet Smashers
sends to you when you do finally lose your last
life. Although the Atari 7800 had several
shoot em ups, including Galaga and Xevious,
its library doesn’t actually have very many space
shooters. Planet Smashers came out in 1990, fairly
late for this kind of game, butit offers core
vertical space shooting gameplay with a twist;
in order to fight the boss you
need to unlock a three-color code,
which is done by collecting drops from enemies
and changing them to the correct color.
There is also a nice upgrade system at play in
Planet Smashers which give you your shield back
and increase your firepower. After facing
the boss, you go back to a new level and
the difficulty increases. Overall, this is a
very simple game, and it was perhaps even a
bit dated when it was released in 1990, but it
is also a solid game that plays well and has
enough going for it to be a few hours of fun.
I particularly enjoyed playing the game on Hard
difficulty, as the speed of the gameplay
felt more in-line with the action
seem to have been going for. You also have
to figure out the codes without hints.
The game hasn’t aged particularly well
due to its repetitive music and gameplay,
but I had fun with it, even if I never was
able to destroy a boss. The game is also
available for free on Antstream Arcade.
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