Air Raiders

"This is amazing!"

Back when this game was released for Atari 2600, games for this console still used to be very limited. Here, perhaps people could find a quite different experience, a one which is surely more enjoyable than the ones usually found in this system. It also has its flaws as every game, but most of the things found on here are quite nice!

As soon as you start playing it, you will notice that this game doesn't have any musics or introduction screens, but those are not really needed in this type of game. Basically you will be controlling a plane and trying to destroy other planes in the sky, while trying to avoid missiles that are thrown at you. This may seem like an easy task, but what if you also need to refill your fuel tank and get more ammo by landing after a while? And that's not very easy to do, as you will be able to see while you are playing.

There is also a score bar on your interface, which shows you how many planes you have already destroyed. Apart from that, this game has no replay value or anything, meaning you will have to see if you can get a better score than your friends. If you have nobody to play this game with

Back to the experience you will feel in the game itself, it is quite enjoyable to control your plane and flying around, trying to destroy all the planes, but having an initial limit of 99 bullets and having a strange way to get new ones, perhaps you will have some problems playing. Don't get me wrong, the game is easy and intuitive to play, but some events are hard to understand.

Concerning the graphics, I have to say that most of the times they are great, and their only flaw is your inability to see the missiles when they are far from you, and even when they are nearer, you will only see them in a "flashing" way, I mean, they will appear and disappear randomly. Apart from that, everything looks quite good, and I would even mistake this for a Master System game!

About the sound, despite not featuring any musics, you can hear the roar of your plane's engine and your bullets being fired in a clear way, it even feels like if you were on a real plane!

Once again I must say that this game is great, its only big flaw is really the lack of replay value. However, if you just want to have some fun and actually manage to find this game these days, GET IT!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/05