This months we present reviews of two GS products: Taito's ARKANOID II: THE REVENGE OF DOH and Spectrum Holobyte's TETRIS.
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ARKANOID II: THE REVENGE OF DOH
A Review by Tom Hall
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Taito recently released an exciting new program Arkanoid II. In this article, I will describe Arkanoid II's features and foibles, and contrast this new version with the original.
A LOT OF DOH
Those owning the original Arkanoid will be impressed by the new features of Arkanoid II. If you haven't seen the original, Arkanoid II will utterly astound you.
The game is similar to the classic Breakout, in that you bounce balls against a wall of bricks, knocking out each brick you hit. This to me was boring. However, Arkanoid adds floating aliens and "pods," which fall out when you hit some bricks. If you catch a pod, something interesting will happen, like:
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the ball will turn into eight balls (three on original Arkanoid)
your paddle (Vaus) will sprout lasers and you can shoot bricks out
your paddle will grow wider, etc.
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Arkanoid II adds seven new types of pods, and features a construction set, so you can make your OWN screens!
MAKING YOUR VAUS A HOME
The legend of Arkanoid is expanded in Arkanoid II: Now an Arkanoid-class ship, the Mixtec, has been attacked by the returning Doh, and you seek this nemesis out in the Vaus 2.
Okay, so it sounds a lot like the first one.
GREAT THINGS ABOUT ARKANOID II
The graphics and sound are even better that the original, if that is possible. The music is richer, the explosions are snazzier, and the variety of aliens floating about are mesmerizing.
PROBLEMS WITH ARKANOID II
There are two things wrong with Arkanoid II: collisions and sequelitis.
The problem with collisions is that occasionally, the bouncing ball will fail to collide with the left or right side of an object. It may be annoying or disconcerting, but it is not intolerable.
The second problem, sequelitis, is a bit more serious. The authors of Arkanoid II had to outdo the original, so they went overboard. The addition of the seven new pods went about two too many.
With the introduction of the "MegaBall," a ball that can go through ANY brick, and the "Special", which can suddenly give you TWENTY Megaballs, any skill the game requires loses its meaning. The hardest screen imaginable is easily won with 20 Megaballs. The authors have given the Vaus too much power; poor old Doh doesn't have much of a chance.
Maybe this is getting a bit heavy--Arkanoid II is completely incredible and fun, don't get me wrong. It's just that the fair balance that Arkanoid had is now tipped in your favor.
THE REAL FUN: THE EDITOR
I admit it--it is a complete blast making your own screens and playing them. Even more fun is making your own screens and having a friend (up till now) play them. Screens can range from easy cake-walks to hideous, horrible painful grotesque objects--perfect for inflicting your loved ones:
"Try and get through THESE, honey."
WHAT SHOULD I GET?
If you already own Arkanoid, get Arkanoid II.
If you hate all these hard arcade games, get Arkanoid II.
If you love a challenge and aren't interested in making any levels of your own, get Arkanoid.
If you want both the challenge and the creative outlet, either buy both games, or buy Arkanoid II and make harder, less power-pod-oriented levels.
SUMMARY
Arkanoid II is much more spectacular than its predecessor, perhaps too much so, and the thrill of playing a screen of your own design is well worth the price. Arkanoid II is in my top five GS game of all time (so far). Buy it!
Prepare to addicted--Tetris for the GS will soon eat up all your free time.
THE TETRIS PHENOMENON
Here's the history, straight from the manual:
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TETRIS (tm) was invented by a 30-year-old Soviet researcher name Alexi Paszitnov who currently works at the Computer Centre (Acamdemy Soft) of the USSR Academy of Scientists in Moscow. The original programmer was 18-year-old Vagim Gerasimov, a student studying Computer Informatics at Moscow University.
Tetris came into being through the joint efforts of Academy Soft (Moscow), Andromeda Software Ltd (London), and Spectrum Holobyte (USA).
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Since it came to America, it wreaked havoc upon the nation's personal computer-based businesses. Says Bob Napp of Softdisk:
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We came to a grinding halt! I had to banish it from the land! (Of course, I keep a copy around so I can play it once in a while. After hours, of course.)
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Fender Tucker, Managing Editor of our Loadstar publication, was introduced to Tetris at a party I had. Now he says:
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I won't go to any party that doesn't have Tetris.
You can throw away all of your software--now you have TETRIS!
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Tetris is in the arcades, on every home computer, on Nintendo and comes WITH the Nintendo Gameboy.
What is this insanely addictive game?
THE TETRIS FILE
The whole idea of Tetris is staggeringly simple. There is a large white box on the screen. Six different shapes (made of four squares each) fall one at a time from the top of the box. Your job: rotate them, then land them on the bottom of the box so that a solid row of squares forms across the box. Once you do this, that row disappears. You lose when the box gets full.
This happens very quickly.
It is difficult quite to explain the mesmerizing effect of Tetris, but here are a few attempts:
"It turns your brain to mush and makes you a slave to the computer."
-- Mike Amarello, Diskworld Managing Editor
Our warehouse manager comes in to the Controller's office and plays Tetris for his whole lunch hour.
"My six year-old came up to me, and said, 'Mommy, I'm hungry.' I said, 'Talk to your father--I'm busy!'"
-- Jo Kniepp, Quality Control and Catalog Inventory Manager
Our Shipping Manager played Tetris from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m.
When asked to pack a rush order, one of our people (playing Tetris at 5 p.m.) snapped, "Go away! I'm busy."
"Tetris is a Russian plot to destroy American productivity."
Jay Wilbur, Softdisk Managing Editor
"Tetris is a Soviet plan to eradicate Yankee output."
Jim Weiler, Softdisk Senior Editor and Plagiarist
So much for Glasnost. Plot or not, this is the best problem-solving game in history. We had Space War and Pong. Japan had Space Invaders and Pac-Man. Now the USSR has Tetris.
SUMMARY
Being of sound mind and body, I say without coersion: get Tetris.
Being of sound mind and body, I say without coersion: get Tetris.
Being of sound mind and body, I say without coersion: get Tetris.
