doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (02/13/85)
Game review:
Blue Max (Synapse) C-64 disk list:$35 discount:$22
One player -- one joystick required
Overall grade: B+
Set in World War I, you fly your plane over enemy territory, destroying
strategic targets.
As in Zaxxon, the view is a diagonal view from above, with the scenery
scrolling down and to the left below the plane. Better than Zaxxon,
though, in that you can judge the plane's height by its relationship
to its shadow.
The joystick controls left/right and climb/dive, with the fire button
firing the machine gun except in a dive, when it releases a bomb. You
can select the arcade-type climb/dive (push forward to climb) or
aircraft-type climb/dive (pull back to climb). You can also select
the effect of gravity (requires frequent climbing if turned on), and
a difficulty level which doesn't seem to have much effect.
It seems like everyone starts out playing this game as if it was a
"destroy everything in sight" game. While you certainly can do that,
and points are awarded for everything you destroy, that's not really
the goal. Your real goal is to reach the "city" and destroy three
strategic targets there. The city is the third "level". To get to
the second level (enemy airfield) you have to destroy a certain number
(I dunno how many) of strategic targets. Then you have to destroy some
number more in order to reach the city level. At the city level, you
get two passes at the city. If you don't destroy all three targets,
you're put back to the first level.
The strategic targets are well marked, either by flashing blue and white
or (in the case of buildings and bridges) with a big flashing blue X.
There are plenty of friendly airfields along the way at which you
land in order to refuel, take on more bombs, and get repairs.
You have plenty of fuel and bombs to make it to the next airfield
except under extreme circumstances.
An interesting aspect of the game is that you have only one "life".
The instructions give as a hint, "Don't crash. Crashing shortens
game play." What an understatement. If you want to win at this
game, you had better forget about the usual "Damn the torpedoes"
approach to arcade games. There are times when "defensive flying"
is appropriate if you want to reach the next friendly airbase alive.
Another unusual aspect is that your worst enemy is yourself. While
there indeed are some hazards presented by the enemy (anti-aircraft
fire), these seldom cause the game to end. In fact, your plane
can withstand four A/A hits and still make it to the next friendly
airfield for repairs. And you can avoid virtually all A/A fire by
climbing to maximum altitude. No, what usually causes the game-
ending crash is flying too low while attempting to strafe, or
a mid-air collision with an airplane you're trying to shoot down.
Overall, the game play is good. But for some reason, I'm just not
compelled to play 20 games in a row, as I am with some other games.
Also, the program seems to get more and more "buggy" as you play,
until it finally crashes and you have to reload it. Those two reasons
are why it didn't rate a grade of "A".
The graphics are very good. A fine example of smooth-scrolling multi-
color graphics and multiple sprites. A lot of "nice touches", like
the out-of-control wing rocking when you're shot down, and the scorch
mark on the ground after you hit. My only complaint graphics-wise:
the sprite priorities aren't appropriate. Sometimes an enemy plane
passes under you but looks like it passes over you.
The sound effects are good. Mostly your average shoot-em-up sounds,
although there's a satisfying "sploosh" when you sink a boat. But
during the "attract" mode (before the game starts), there is a full-
length multi-voice rendition of "Hail Brittania" that is just great.
They must have put a lot of work into that, and a fine job too.
The documentation is even worse than Synapse's usual. This program is
somewhat different from the Atari 800 version that it was based on, but
the documentation wasn't changed. And the enclosed sheet which gives
C-64 loading instructions doesn't tell you about the extra copy on the
back side of the disk (which I had to use, as always).
--
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug