Asteroids

It was with a mixture of delight and wariness that I approached Activision's update of the classic rock-blaster.Within 5 minutes, my wariness had disappeared and I was spinning around merrily, destroying huge floating chunks of space debris whilst desperately trying to regain my ship navigation skills (that inertia movement system is darn tricky to master). Thankfully, Activision have wisely changed very little in terms of gameplay, adding things that do not detract from the simple yet effective addictiveness of Asteroids. Sure, the graphics have changed and the sound and music are suitably 90s, but underneath, the original nature of the game remains. In other words, despite some fancy trimmings, the core goal of the game remains the same: shoot wave after wave of increasingly fast asteroids until the inevitable happens and they smash you into space dust.

The main addition to the gameplay is the introduction of power-ups. These range from defensive forceshields to nuclear-powered weapons and extra firepower, but - whilst collecting these does add a certain amount of interest - they do not really add much to the gameplay. Nor thankfully do they detract from it, and I found myself ignoring them for the most part. The other main element that makes this game different is the themed levels. Here the action does not simply take place in dark, featureless space. Instead, you must clear areas in which dying suns send out searing jets of flame, or where black holes try to suck you into their maw, to mention but two examples. This does in fact change the game somewhat, and for the most part is very effective, meaning tactics such as "stay still and shoot" do not work in some levels, and adding spice and variety to the game as a whole.

The bottom line then is that Asteroids is a competent and enjoyable update of a classic game. There are enough new features, both cosmetic and gameplay-wise, to make it worth a look to any fan of no-nonsense arcade fun. However, despite all the bells and whistles, I found myself rejoicing most when I unlocked the hidden version of Classic Asteroids included in the game. This arcade-perfect conversion of the original coin-op is still the one I return to more often than the new version, proving - for me at least - that the old ones are still the best.