Astro Blaster & The Internet Arcade
When it comes to gaming, I prefer staying at home and playing on console machines or my personal computer. I haven’t played that many classic arcade games in my life, aside from a racing game or two. Maybe a claw machine if I was feeling lucky. I thought I wasn’t missing out on much, considering I played many a minigame adapted from the classics.
Take Astro Blaster for example. A simple goal of shooting the alien space ships before they take you out first. I figured I would take a spin at it after seeing it in the Internet Arcade. I remembered how fun it was to play the minigames of a similar nature and, though I ended things off early in the past with such games out of boredom, I figured it was an easy enough game to play for a bit.
Though I neglected to realize the differences between the original and other adaptations until I lost the game. A very quick and humbling experience, might I add.
The key differences that led to an untimely end were the enemies themselves. While the versions I played focused on many enemies descending at once, Astro Blaster gave me a run for my virtual coins as the enemies moved around the level faster than my favorite rhythm game at maximum speed. Normally I would miss enemies by the skin of their teeth. With Astro Blaster? I couldn’t even hit the broad side of a barn!
5630 points. Not bad, but I could do better.
Another “coin” clinked in the machine. Round two, let’s go!
Then I became aware of another thing I missed: the fuel gauge. Normally, I wouldn’t think twice about maneuvering my little ship around. After all, it was the onslaught of enemies I had to worry about and whether I could dodge their attacks before they overtook me.
With Astro Blaster, however, I discovered the fuel gauge and the threat of overheating the lasers. Not only was I now focused on dodging the space ships, but now I had to make sure I didn’t blow up my own ship.
3320 points. New information noted. Round 3!
Did you realize that you could die from being in the wrong area of the map when it’s time to dock the ship?
1880 points. It was a fluke, but now I’m honed in. Round 4, baby!
I figure out that if I stand in a specific area, I can avoid lasers and save up space to shoot back between shots fired. Neat trick!
That I eventually have to put in my back pocket because I tripped up at the asteroids hailing at me.
2320 points. I feel like it’s getting worse, before it gets better.
Feelings aside, I only gave the machine five coins, so I’m on my last turn. Taking in all the information I discovered through error, I maneuver back to the section I originally lost to in the beginning.
And I keep going! The slight nihilistic twinge I felt earlier melted away as I blasted the enemies down one by one. Then, the level moved to the next wave of enemies.
That I almost immediately lose all of my lives to because geez these little guys hit hard!
6340 points. …I can do better.
And yet, that’s the farthest I got before I had to throw in the towel.
Did I have fun? Debatable.
Did I get competitive? Oh, definitely.
Would I keep coming back? Probably not if it was an arcade machine, given I only have so many coins to my name. But given the opportunity to do so again on the Internet Arcade?