Blast Annual
7th July 2020
Author: Gordon King
Publisher: Andrew Waite
Machine: BBC Master 128
Published in Blast Annual 2020 Volume 1
Planet Nubium
To put one's trust in an all-controlling supercomputer is a brave thing to do. What if the latest update from Nubisoft gives it the blue screen of death and everything it is meant to control goes awry? This BBC game is an excellent true-to-life simulation of this very scary situation.
Okay the last part was a lie, but what we have here is the bastard child of Jimmy Jetman and Miner Willy. The result is a lovely single screen collect 'em-up with both platform and jetpacking elements. On each level, the player must navigate around the odd creatures and other static dangers in order to collect items that will give him the password to reboot the computer.
Once collected, the player must then navigate back to their spacecraft in order to jump to the next region of the planet. It's all nicely presented and over its 33 levels, the player will see many sprites taken from Jet Set Willy and such like; so there is a nice nostalgic familiarity when playing.
Seeing them in the lovely colours that the BBC projects onto the CRT is very fresh though, and I couldn't help but smile with each newly coloured friend that I was reacquainted with.
Even though the inertia is bang on, I was disappointed with all the soft platforms in the level that I could simply pass through when ascending.
This negated any real difficulty created in the clever level design. In saying that, if the player isn't careful, they can consume all their jet fuel far too quickly. Musically, the game is a sheer delight as it hosts an abundance of classical tunes that were all so familiar in games of yesteryear.
Overall, Planet Nubium is a pleasure to play, look at and listen to. It would have scored much higher if it weren't for the game engine choice of the soft platforms.