Challenge of NEXAR
Meet the Challenge in this space shooter
By Jess LaFleurOctober 18, 2001
The Challenge of Nexar is a neat little game. I found this game in a bag of Atari carts in a salvation army for 5
bucks (the whole bag.) Quite a haul considering there was about 25 carts!
The cart is the standard Spectravision black plastic box with silvery label
with the indents for easy gripping. I've played this game for quite
a while to see just how hard this challenge gets. It does get quite challenging indeed.
The Game
In the game you play a gunner in a space like reality where you must shoot
down attacking spaceships that fly right towards you. If you don't
shoot them, they will indeed shoot you. The game is quite a feat and its hard to play when using
an emulator such as Z26 (what I use). There is a low amount of points given for each
ship you shoot down and they move at quite an overwhelming rate.
You must beat the wave of ships as fast as you can or you will NOT last very long.
I find that attacking them directly isn't necessarily a good method of winning
and you must shoot as fast as you can in the direction of the ships. This is a
very hard game as I want to point out.
Graphics
The graphics are very simple and there is not very much to excite the mind.
There are better examples of graphics in games from this era than what is shown
here. The total graphics are a space ship in several colors that act as
enemies, your shots, exploding ships, and lines that act as your playing area into
the background. At the top and bottom are numbers showing score and the like. As well as
your target crosshairs! Although not squares, the graphics are still
very simple!
Control
Control is simple enough, and all you need to do is move the
crosshair around
the screen and use the button to shoot. Unfortunately you will
quickly notice the lag and slowness of the target as you move it around the screen with your
controller. However, the simplicity of the control brings the
score up slightly.
Sound
Let's just forget this area of the game. There are few sounds that
are good besides the blasts of your fire and the poorly done
explosion. This is a major area that should of been redone. Music is not important in this game but good
sound effects are something I and I'm positive many other Atarians and
videogamers expect.
The Challenge of Nexar is NOT an amazing game but is a good game to play
for those who like a memory challenge. Overall, it fails and
this game could have easily been better. Especially in the sound and
graphics departments.
Game Data |
Scores
|
| Title |
Challenge of NEXAR |
Graphics |
45% |
| Publisher |
Spectravision |
Sound/Music |
35% |
| Genre |
Shooter |
Gameplay |
65% |
| System |
2600 |
Control |
N/A% |
|
|
Overall |
48% |
)
)
