Atari 8-bit: Astro Chase

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Published on September 3, 2021 4:03:58 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGK98y4vXC4

Game:

Astro Chase (1982)

Duration: 10:46

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Flashing lights warning for the end of the video when the Earth explodes. (...spoilers, I guess?)

Astro Chase, at first glance, does a lot of things right. High-stakes action (save the world from destruction by aliens!), crisp sound effects that do their job quite well, constant movement, innovative controls, continuous background music (Donkey Kong sort of has that, but just a few looping notes), the eye candy of a dense field of plants with random layouts... even the cartridge itself had a custom design!

However, the gameplay is monotonous and repetitive even for an arcade-style game, and it never quite manages to feel rewarding. There is a scoring system, but it's easy to overlook and just comes across as an afterthought. I also feel like the music is trying to put me to sleep, which seems a strange thing to say about a tune that comes from the 1812 Overture!

In short, Astro Chase strikes me as an early instance of the sort of game where the effort and attention of development were so focused on the technical aspects that the basic concept of making a fundamentally entertaining and engaging game sort of fell by the wayside. I remember having fun with it as a child, but it just feels lacking now. Even Astro-Grover has more varied gameplay. There's the potential for something great here that never quite came to fruition. It's always kind of tragic when that happens.

On an unrelated note, is it just me, or does North America kind of look like a face? The Great Lakes as eyes, maybe with glasses, and the Gulf of Mexico as a grumbling mouth? I've never been able to unsee it.

More information: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-astro-chase_6002.html

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