Sunday, December 25, 2011

Skyroads

This is my first post. Thanks to all my new followers. I'm going to try to get a new game reviewed daily. Merry Christmas!

To this day, there hasn't been a game that keeps you gripping the keyboard, listening to the rhythmic tapping of the spacebar as you jump and bounce your way along an incredible floating road, high above various planets. I'm talking about Skyroads, of course, a game that I spent countless on as a young one, with my 21" CRT monitor and IBM386 desktop computer. I'd think to myself "No sir, graphics do not get much better than this" as the early hours of the morning struck.
 
Gameplay: 9/10
The control is a bit awkward at first, but eventually you'll be piloting this thing no problem. Everything seems to work well and sometimes gets a little quirky. They throw in certain changes of pace, pieces of the road that will slow you down, speed you up, or kill you. Combining this with the gravity changes keeps the levels feeling different and the skill needed to complete the level strong. -1 point for the lack of cutscenes or story, and the lack of courses/modes.

Graphics: 7/10
It's fine. Colorful and fast. Sometimes it's so fast you can barely comprehend what is going on. Not much to the graphics here, stationary pictures in the background provide little stimuli, while the blocks and ship tend to get old after a while. -3 points for that.

Sound: 3/10
There's also not much to the sound in this game. Something like three MIDI songs will keep you bobbin' your head while you jam down the course, and there's probably three or so actual sound effects in the game. Let's see, there's the sound you make when you blow up, the sound you make when you bounce on the track, and the woosh that you hear sometimes. -7 points for the lack of sound effects.

Overall: 7/10
Skyroads is a pretty good game concept, with a fairly lackluster product. They really missed different game modes, different ships, and maybe even a level designer. More sound and graphics effects would have been nice. Wouldn't mind seeing a remake of this classic DOS game. They did make a Christmas version, so if you need more, that's where you find it.

All in all, you should give it a shot sometime, you'll be glad you did. It's free as all hell.
http://www.bluemoon.ee/history/skyroads/

9 comments:

  1. LOL this is probably the only game that would run on my shitty laptop. Nice blog though, and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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  2. Cool!
    This is the kind of blog I needed!
    I love old games and feeling the nostalgia...
    Definite follow.

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  3. looking forward to more i like what i read!! following maybe you will like my blogs.!

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  4. Ugh more Nostalgia. Going to be following this for sure!

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  5. Oh why, why did you have to break, SEGA?

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  6. All good game reviewers start small, in a place like this. This is your time to shine my friend. I really loved reading about this game. Showed me so much without over loading me with words. Deffinately have my follow. Love it!

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  7. this is one I will remember forever
    sometimes I download it and play it all over again...

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