Assault

"One of the greatest games on the Atari 2600."

Assault is one of those long lost gems of gaming. Hardly anyone knows of it but it's easily one of the funnest, most challenging and most complicated games on the Atari 2600. It's very innovative as well with a unique control scheme and a first of its kind gameplay mechanics. It's very different that other shooters like Space Invaders, but it's definitely more exciting and just a better game than those simple arcade ports.

Graphics

Very good for a VCS game and with much variety. There are many different kinds of enemies that look completely different with unique fire types as well. Projectiles are clear and easy to see, and enemies have their own special animations and quirks. Very impressive if I must say.

Sound

Nothing done that could have been done better. The sound chip of this machine doesn't allow for any "good" audio to be produced and thus you'll be hearing some annoying beeps and explosion sounds in Assault. It's not bad, hardly that good either.

Gameplay

A very innovative shooter that has you in control of some... shooting thinigie fighting aliens dropped from a huge mothership. You press up to shoot upward and you can fire to the right and left sides as well. At every level, you'll fight a bunch of unique aliens, three at a time, that have their own weapon and as a result, their own strategy to shoot down.

The enemies get progressively harder and faster as you kill them one by one until you kill them all. Weapons vary from simply laser rays to spray rays to little creatures that come at you from the sides. Once you've completed all the levels you move to the next stage, where enemies split into two after being shot at, and then firing at you from these two halfs seperately. Then they split into three parts, and get faster and so on.

This creates longetivity and challenge (the fun kind) not present in most other VCS games and make this a very complex and deep game. The controls are easy to learn, yet hard to master. The enemies are similar at first, but very different when they fire, move and become faster in their own ways and moving patterns. You can play this game for hours and discover new things everytime. If only some the ideas in it were used later by a current gen company for a modern shooting game, ah the possibilities.

Assault has a very special in my heart that no other Atari 2600 game has occupied. I love you Assault. And you would do well to get this game and play it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06