Monday, December 26, 2011

Jetpack

When Jetpack came out in 1993, it was an instant hit amongst me and my gamer friends. The single player levels that come with the game are seen as only one thing to me; inspiration to create a much more amazing level with the built-in level editor.


Gameplay: 8/10
Jetpack's main focus is relentlessly speedy gameplay. You're some dude with a Jetpack, a helmet, and a vicious world where the very fabric of existence involves collecting all of the green gems to open the door and make way to the next level. The whole time, there's enemy robots chasing you as you blast your way around ladders, conveyors and teleporters. You're also running out of fuel for your canisters. Worst of all, if you get touched by one of these evil bots, you blow the hell up. Makes for a good game, but -2 points for repetitive nature.

Graphics: 5/10
Let's face it, this game is fugly. Random-ass tiles can make it seem like you're in a factory, on the beach, or in a cave, all at the same time. If you wanted to make the game environmentally correct, you'd have to design a pretty dumb level. That's just the way this game is. The title screen is pretty sweet, though. -5 points for graphics being practically useless in this game.

Sound: 6/10
The sound repeats itself quite a bit, however it provides a much more immersive experience when playing Jetpack. Screams and explosions, grit and grind, dings and dats, they're what they are. -4 points for lack of music to rock to.

Overall: 7/10
If you haven't played Jetpack, give it a try. There's a ton of user-created levels out there for you to load up and run through. They could have improved by making multi-room levels, and more powerups other than the time stopper, but I liked it enough when it came out to talk about it now. Oh, and like most of the games I post, it's free to download.
http://www.adeptsoftware.com/jetpack/

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like an awesome game! Will give it a try thanks to this review!

    ReplyDelete