Games Computing
1st March 1984
Publisher: CBS Electronics
Machine: Coleco Vision Games System
Published in Games Computing #3
Space Fury
Spacy Fury was certainly christened aptly. It is sheer fury on your TV screen when you plug and switch on this game from Colecovision.
Based on the highly successful arcade game of Asteroids (and also any arcade game in its own right), Space Fury revolves round the focal point of a space ship (just for a change)! It's placed in the centre of the screen and is under your control - using the special Colecovision joysticks. Before you start the game proper you must select one of the eight skill levels to play. This seems to be a feature of most of the Colecovision games. Having done that, you're confronted with a title screen.
This sequence received different reactions from people in the office watching. But the vast majority of people hated it! It consists of a brightly coloured head with one giant eye and a continuous stream of burble telling you what to expect in the game. That's the "dreaded alien commander", by the way.
Now, let battle commence and defend your triangular ship by firing at the enemy craft which whistle towards you. First of all, you have to destroy the alien scouts which are small green ships that look a bit like kryptonite. If you don't obliterate these, they will form into larger ships which on contact with your ship will destroy it. They also release fireballs which spell much more danger.
The best tactic to adopt is to keep your finger constantly on the fire button. And at the same time keep an eye out for the ships so that you can swivel your own ship round to fire at them with deadly accuracy. All the enemy craft drift round the screen and home-in on your ship with the sole intent of destroying it. Once you have successfully wiped out the bands of alien scouts you move on to the next screen which involves docking your ship with a mothership. The docking process isn't difficult, and it gives you the extra facility of an energy boost. This is vital to survive the following round of the game. There are three motherships in total and these give you the choice of firing in different ways. Try them all out to find which suits your style of play best.
Now you can blast away to your heart's content at the alien cruisers and if successfully completed you have to dock with another mothership. The purpose of this task is to gain more firepower in order to try and kill the alien commander's destroyers and warships which are sent out on sorties.
As with all these arcade-type of games, you earn points for yourself each time you destroy one of the enemy craft. And the harder they are to shoot down, the more points you are awarded. As the difficulty of the game increases, the points awarded are increased too.
Unfortunately, although this game's concept was rather different, there was something lacking in the addictive aspect of it. Nevertheless, the graphics were good and the game would probably be more enjoyable if the Colecovision joysticks weren't so hard to handle.