Secret Quest

"A must play for Atari fans!"

As you should know if you're reading this review, Atari attempted a comeback after the video game crash of 1984. For the most part, their post-crash games were much more advanced than their previous ones. However, it was too late, as the great Nintendo machine could not be brought down. For some Atari games, like Secret Quest, that was a shame. Released in 1989, this game was way ahead of its time. Unfortunately, due to the late release, not many carts were made, and barely anyone knows it exists.

In this game, some evil creatures, ranging from cobra snakes to Mr. Potatohead, have set up colonies in outer space. I'll bet their plan is to take over the Earth. Your job is to enter the colonies, blow them up, and escape to the next level. There are eight colonies overall, and each one is larger than the other. For instance, level one has one floor, level two has two floors, level 8 has 8 floors. And every floor has a symbol. The only way to blow the colonies up is to find all the symbols on each floor, and enter them into a control panel. If you can do that, a clock will start counting down. That's the amount of time before the colony will explode. So you need to find the gate to escape, or you'll get blown away as well! You have to remember these codes, and the last level has eight of them, so it's wise to write them all down, so you don't have to run around re-looking for them.

Of course, that's not all there is to it. Being in space where there's low oxygen levels, you have to rely on your own oxygen tanks. Plus, the enemies will attack you, and you have to attack them with your weapons, which takes energy. The only way to gain energy or oxygen is to kill all the enemies on one screen. So if you run out of energy, you can keep playing, but there's no way to get more oxygen, so you're as good as gone.

There are three different weapons you can find throughout the game. The first one is a simple sword, which does the least amount of damage, but takes the least amount of energy. The second most powerful weapon is a wave beam. It has more range than the sword, and it uses more energy. The most powerful weapon is a laser, and it's deadly. I mean that, because it will nuke almost any enemy in one shot, and it'll drain a whole lot of energy from your supply! A couple enemies can only be killed by the laser in the final levels, so it's wise to use it sparingly until then. Another accessory you can find is the horn, which can open locked doors if you play in. In these locked doors can be bonus points, paths to important areas, or new weapons, so it's important you find all these as well.

One thing about this game is the wide selection of enemies in it. Every level, there are one or two new bad guys introduced. Everything in the first two levels takes only one slash from the sword to destroy. Later on, they will take more and more hits. When I was playing this for the first time, I was not just looking forward to being closer to the end, but also to seeing new enemies pop in. The only drawback involving enemies is that only one enemy could be on the screen at a time. You kill one of them, and either another one forms, or you get your energy or oxygen bonus. But it definitely does not harm the game in any way.

There is a simple musical piece that plays throughout the game, and it is absolutely hypnotizing. Considering that the Atari was not designed very well to handle music, they did a really nice job. The other sound effects fit the game very well

The sprite graphics are excellent. Many of them are even multi-colored, a rarity in an Atari game. However, I wish they could have done something more with the rest of them. The walls are all just a solid color; at least every level gets its own color, and every floor gets its own shade of that level. They could have maybe added a brick-like pattern, or something more detailed. And the floor is just solid black, it would be interesting to see if they could come up with a variety of floor patterns. But as much that was put into this game, I doubt there was much free space to put it in.

There's another great feature about this game. This is the only Atari game that I know of that has, get ready for this, a game saving feature! You can save the game at any time, but when you reload the game, you will always start at the beginning of the level. At the beginning of the game, you will enter your initials. All you have to do is copy down the code of symbols that is on the selection screen (which you can bring up by switching the BW/Color switch). Then to reload, start the game under those initials, bring up the selection screen, hit select, and enter the code. Then you'll be taken right to the level in which you saved! It's extremely useful, because it takes very long to finish this game in one sitting, and very difficult as well.

This is one of my favorite games for the Atari 2600, and it's too bad that it got very little exposure, because I think it would have gotten a lot of people hooked back then.

What's Good:
• Gameplay is outstanding, good complexity
• Great sprite graphics
• Game save feature!!!

What could be better:
• Background graphics could be touched up
• Simultaneous 2 player option would have been nice
• More than one enemy on the screen could improve gameplay even more.

Is this worth a buy?
Absolutely, if you find this game, be sure to take it, or someone else will!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/04/01, Updated 02/22/01