352nd played so far
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1980
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari
Oldie time! The very plain and boring reason we’re playing this today is that we were going through the book, updating our checks on games we’ve covered, and we accidentally went one too far and checked Missile Command. It had to happen.
Our Thoughts
As so often, there doesn’t seem to be a point talking a lot about graphics here, as they are as they often are in these old games – simple, possibly a bit boring, quite pixellated and plain. They represent what they need to, but beyond that it’s what you expect from a game. I say that now so we get it out of the way – functional, but ultimately pushing you to focus on gameplay.
The concept is simple – and heavily influenced by Cold War fears. Missiles are raining from the sky. You’re meant to use your own missiles to destroy and stop them before they destroy the six cities under your protection. For this, you have three missile bases (which can be destroyed as well) each with a collection of missiles.
The game starts simple enough – surprisingly so almost, with the first couple of levels quite doable. While the difficulty ramped up quickly, it felt quite fair. Of course, destroyed cities carry over from one level to the next (with high scores rebuilding them), making it more difficult as you’re doing worse.
It all feels like it balances out quite nicely, into an appropriately tough game that never feels impossible, just a situation where you need more skill. A nice, simple formula that works.
Final Thoughts
Let’s be honest, we kinda phoned this one here. Not much to say here, now move on.