Challenge of NEXAR

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Meet the Challenge in this space shooter
by Jess LaFleur

October 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.