Gravitar

"Frustrating, yet so addictive."

My opinions about Gravitar have always been mixed. Some days I love it, others I despise it. Whenever I play, the game never seems all that fun, yet it is terribly addictive, and I can never seem to stop. Gravitar was a late bloomer for the Atari 2600, not being released until 1988.

In Gravitar, your enemy is in fact, Gravitar. Gravitar is trying to take over the universe by using gravity as his weapon. Gravitar has taken control of four solar systems in your galaxy and you must rid each solar system of bunkers and bases. To do this you control a pretty standard Atari space ship that fires missiles.

The game starts with your ship flying through the galaxy. You see a giant sun in the middle, a spawn point for enemy ships, and the four solar systems. You will immediately notice that you are highly attracted to the sun, and will be pulled into it. If you touch it, you lose a life. From here, you can start to rid the solar systems of bases and bunkers. To do this you have to fly into the solar system. The next screen will be where the bunkers are. You must shoot the bunkers and collect any little purple squares(not sure what they are supposed to be) to free the galaxy. This may sound simple, but because of the gravity Gravitar has put on this planet, it is very hard. If you run into any walls or get hit by enemy fire, you also lose a life.

Graphics
I liked the graphics in Gravitar. The game had a title screen, which is uncommon for Atari 2600 games, and overall the graphics were just above average for this system. Nice colors were used and movement was pretty good too. The only thing I didn't like is sometimes the angle that the ship looked to be on, wasn't quite the right angle I was looking for causing me to miss my target, but this is easy to adapt to.

Sound
Sound was pretty basic, meaning that there wasn't a whole lot of it. Everything was pretty basic here. There wasn't any music, and the sound effects were nothing special.

Control
This is the main reason why I say some days I hate this game and other I love it. Because of the gravitational effect that Gravitar put on the solar systems, the controls are a little wacky. You slowly fall to the ground and have to use your thrusters to stay afloat, but mastering the thrust control to get things just right is very hard. I often find myself flying out of control and crashing into some wall. This is extremely frustrating and sometimes makes me want to throw the cartridge into the street, but this does add a lot of challenge to the game and takes a soft touch to master.

Replay Value
I always find myself coming back to this one thinking I will do much better at it, but this is never the case. By the time I find this out, I have been playing for about ten minutes and want to stop. I can't speak for other people whether or not they will want to play this game a lot, or just a little. It really all depends on whether or not you like the challenge. I'd say replay value is a little low for this game compared to other Atari 2600 games.

Final Words
I have a love/hate relationship with Gravitar. Some days I will despise it, and others it's just a fun challenge. I'd say more of the time it is just an annoyance to play this game. It's worth picking up if you are thinking of buying this, but don't expect game play to be easy.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/06