Game Type:
Side-scrolling action (e.g. Scramble)
Platform:
Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X
Tested
on: Titanium PowerBook G4/800
Publisher:
Lost Minds
Year:
2002
Version:
1.1
Price:
$10 Shareware
Graphics:
5/5
Sound:
4/5
Gameplay:
5/5
Overall:
5/5
Teaser
You a are lone interstellar traveller flying along in your purple squid
ship when you encounter a field of space junk complete with enemy
spaceships trying to blast you into itty bitty pieces. What else can
you do but defend yourself and blow them to kingdom come? Of course,
after that you have to investigate this interstellar hazard and perhaps
find someone to complain to. The trail of death and destruction soon
leads you to a little blue planet in an out of the way corner of the
galaxy...
Game
AstroSquid is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up with sharp graphics and
engaging gameplay. You control a purple ship that can move anywhere on
the always-scrolling-to-the-left screen. For a weapon you have an
underwhelming bb gun, but you can pick up powerups that provide you
with any one of four different weapons. Each weapon has four power
levels -- the more powerups you pick up the more powerful the weapon
becomes. But be careful not to pick up a different powerup or you will
switch to a new weapon at its lowest setting.
One weapon is the yellow bb gun. At level one it shoots several shots a
second, although only one at a time. At level two it shoots two shots
at a time, at level three it also shoots diagonally forward up and
down, and at level four it shoots forward with a super shot as well as
shoots up and down with single shots.
The green glop gun always shoots forward at all power levels but is
more powerful than the yellow gun. The red laser shoots a continuous
beam forward that gets more powerful at higher levels (though I've
never gotten it to level four since it's my least favorite weapon). My
favorite weapon is the lightning gun, which shoots a continuous stream
of lightning at the nearest target. It's the only gun that can shoot
behind you, it requires no aiming, and does a great deal of damage at
higher power levels. The only drawback is that occasional it gets stuck
shooting something that can't be destroyed, so you have to maneuver to
bring your real target closer.
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For defense
you have some rather thin shields which will protect you
from the occasional enemy fire and debris collision (you bounce off of
most objects you brush against), but a few hits will bring it down and
then the next hit kills you. You also have your maneuverability because
most bad guys only shoot to the left or in restricted fields of fire.
The objective is to make it to the end of the level, blasting obstacles
and enemies while picking up the occasional powerup.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics are silky smooth -- I never experienced any slowdowns.
Everything is distinctive and easy to recognize. It's easy to tell
what's going on which is important because you have to maneuver
constantly to avoid hitting things. All the objects are rectangular
sprites which is usually not noticeable except for a few
non-rectangular bad guys. Also, very few things articulate which for
this game would probably only add needless detail.
The sounds are clear. You shoot things and hear them explode but for
the most part the bad guys don't make shooting sounds (or at least they
are very subdued sounds). The background soundtrack is quite good. It
keeps you pumped up and is varied enough that I never thought it was
repetitive. The only problem with sound is that the enemy boss theme is
quite loud compared to the rest of the game.
Gameplay
You can configure your keyboard controls and set the sound effect and
sound background levels. There are sixteen levels with a level boss at
the end of each even level. You start out with two ships and there's an
extra ship powerup every two or three levels. At the start of each
level your shield is reset to the start level and your weapon is reset
to the base weapon. Also, once you've completed a level you can then
start a new game at that level.
Combine the last two statements with the fact that every level can be
completed with one ship (it's not a really hard game) and this means
that you can work through all the levels to the end of the game with
not too much effort. After working my way through each level I was able
to go through all sixteen levels in one game. It probably took me four
to six hours of gameplay to get to that point.
Recommendations
For $10 this is a great game. If you're fairly ok with video games you
can finish this one in one day, but chances are it'll take a few days
of playing a game or two at a time. The graphics and sound are great
and the gameplay is addictive. This is certainly a shareware game well
worth the price. |