"Pretty Colors...."

When you start running along the Atari systems from the 2600 up, you start to notice that the best parts of the games that jump from those systems is the amount of color and detail that is involved. Astro Chase is one of those games that give you plenty to look at with visual splendor but tends to leave out the game play and even the sound to go along with it. Essentially, you’re looking at a slightly beefed up version of the 2600 version with some additions thrown in. If you’re into the old Atari games, then you’ll probably find this to be one of the better-looking games on the 5200.

For the most part, all you have to do run from place to place and make sure that you navigate a maze to zap mines that are floating towards Earth. I really don’t have much of a back-story on the game, as most of the games from this time era really didn’t have much of a story to them. I’ve found that the further along I get with the Atari games, the less of a story that I really need and this is no exception to the rule. However, if you have the imagination to do it, you can make your own little story of evil aliens trying to smash through the barriers of Earth with devastating mines and you’re the only hope for the survival of the human race.

-The Game Play-

The game play really is simple on all accounts in which you take control of a small ship and make your way through several different mazes of asteroids in order to destroy mines that are making a run towards Earth. There aren’t any power-ups that are available throughout the game and the only thing that you have to do is successfully navigate the different fields. The further you get into the game, the harder the fields get to move around and you’ll find that there really isn’t much here that you have to do other than be slick with the control pad. The only other distraction that you have here is enemy space ships that come out from time to time to divert your attention from the goal, which can be costly in the long run.

The control in Astro Chase is as solid as you can get with the Atari joystick. Although there really isn’t much to the game other than maneuvering through the fields and using the boosters to get around. The lasers that you have at your disposal are efficient and you’ll see that the control doesn’t take too much brainpower to learn and master within the first few minutes of play. Beginners will have fun learning how to do this successfully as the levels increase and the speed comes up while veterans to games such as this will find the game to be a walk down memory lane in both the game play and the control interface.

-The Visuals-

Visually the game has everything that you could hope for out of an action game complete with some pretty neat three-dimensional effects. However, the star fields become a little boring after about the first ten stages or so and the picture of the Earth, regardless of the detail, seems a little too bright. The further you get into the game, the fast it becomes, and the Atari keeps up with what you’re doing on the screen, giving you little or no slow down. But again, if you’re looking to see something different after stage ten, then you’re really in for a surprise, because there really isn’t much that will keep you interested or make you notice anything new.

-The Audio-

The audio is decent for an action game, but the tones that you hear won’t leave you with too much to remember after you’ve shut the system down. Bright tunes at the beginning and all through the play are done with the monotone that you would expect from an Atari game, and you’ll find that the sound effects pretty much run the same way. Speaking of the sound effects, they do the job, but you’ll hear that the game still retains that high-pitched tone that just seems to make you want to cringe. After a few levels of this, you’ll want to mute the television, considering that you really don’t need the sound to know what you’re doing.

-The Verdict-

While this isn’t the best game on the 5200, it does have a purpose to make it one of the above average action games on this system. With the beautiful visuals and the easy to use control, it’s almost easy to forget that the game play has little or no depth and the audio just doesn’t have that much going for it. Collectors of the system and games should make it a point to pick it up while a casual classic gamer just won’t find enough here to hold their interests. Either way, Astro Chase is a good way to see what can be improved upon from an older game on an older system.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/02, Updated 09/29/02