Atari User


Missing: One Droid

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Robert Swan
Publisher: Bug Byte
Machine: Atari 400/800/600XL/800XL/130XE

 
Published in Atari User #33

Missing: One Droid

Rusty is a rather young droid, whose manufacture date wasn't that long ago, and he is more than a bit impetuous. You see, Rusty likes to explore.

But one day, he got separated from his companions, so he went for a look around. When he stuck his hands into a topo-dimensional converter and promptly disappeared, the main computer wasn't all that surprised.

"Oh, well, another day, another droid," it muttered, and logged Rusty down in his memory bankds as, "Faulty droid terminated". Well, it saved a lot of time, and was far easier than filing a report detailing Rusty's sudden disappearance.

Missing: One Droid

But Rusty wasn't dead. In fact, he was very much alive, but in a void, alone, except for surreal enemies whose only intent was his utter annihilation. His only chance was to run.

What little he knew about dimensional converters - which certainly wasn't much - told him that in a construct universe such as this, if he kept fighting and moving, it should stress the fabric of the universe.

In theory, this should ensure that he would be thrown back into the real world. But how long will that take? Only you can decide...

That actual story covers up for what basically is a strange kind of shoot-'em-up. You control a small droid in the centre of the screen, and have to shoot anything that moves.

The enemies float around you in an attempt to collide with you, thereby draining your power.

To increase your life energy, you have to make contact with the floating heart logos. These help, but not much, and you have to collect a lot to make any gain at all.

The evil sprites you encounter come in various forms and colours - you need to destroy them all to progress to the next level. You may recognise a couple of the sprites too.

This is a weird kind of game, and it does get a little boring after a while. Though original, it soon becomes annoying rather than amusing.

Overall, there's not really much there. It's basic blast-everything-in-sight and this is made simple by holding down the fire button and waggling the joystick in slow circles.

The sound and gameplay are both very basic.

Robert Swan

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