"Save the galaxy....vector style!"

Classic gaming is something that is becoming less and less the rage now that the next generation of arcade gaming is coming into play at an exponential rate. With hundreds of new games on the market, games like Pong, Missile Command and Asteroids are part of the long and nearly forgotten past! You'll find machines like this buried way back in the arcade beneath the neon lights and loud music, a neglected machine with no cabinet stickers, and probably a worn and image burned screen. Taking control of a small ship, your duty is to blast your way through rounds of giant asteroids and making points by blasting the small ones that fly away from it.

-Game Play 7/10-

There really isn't much to the game other than shooting at large Asteroids from the center of the screen, and collecting points from the smaller ones that explode from the resulting shots. It's simple and to the point, and anyone of any age can play! You'll progress through several rounds in which the Asteroids move faster and faster until you can either not go on any further, or you get way too bored from playing it!

-Control 7/10-

It's a simple spin dial and a firing button. You use the dial to point the front end of your ship and then the firing button to blast away at the oncoming asteroids. Any way that you slice it, you'll find that the game controls are exceptionally simple to use!

-Visual / Audio 7/10-

Audio wise, you have nothing more than the sound of the ship firing and the asteroids either moving in towards you or exploding around you. There isn't any music, and really the only sound that you'll hear is that of the other machines around you as you're playing! The visuals are straight up vector graphics that consist more or less of glowing, floating lines that move all around the screen. If there is a machine out there without the screen burns in it, then I have yet to find one, so be prepared to look at several ''ghosts'' that may appear as you play!

-Quarter Crunching 1/10-

It usually takes only one quarter to get your fill of the game and you won't find any real challenge worth overcoming except to have the top score on the machine! There is no continue feature, so all you need is one quarter, one arcade and one run down Asteroids machine to play and get your fill of this classic game!

-Overall 7/10-

Asteroids is a forgotten game from a forgotten age. In this day and age, you won't find need for a machine like this except to possibly spark some old memory. Featuring the then pioneering Vector Graphics, Asteroids fades into obscurity like most of the classic games, falling to the predator of time that comes with just about any game in the arcades when something new comes out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/01, Updated 09/30/01