Atom Smasher

Copyright : Amsoft | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Not usually a very good team Amsoft & Romik but will Atom Smasher be any different? well it came as a freebie which is always looked upon as a plus, the idea is simply to smash the atoms in the center of the screen before the walls become tighter and those nasty guards grow bigger by number, trust me it?s harder than it sounds.

Graphics

From the moment Atom Smasher presents it?s ugly Mode 0 (chunky) front end you realise it?s a good job you didn?t spend any money on this title. The in-game graphics don?t look much better either and yet again the old spaceship from Asteroids makes an appearance in another title, this time they?ve coloured you red (you?ld never notice it was from Asteroids because it?s red). Only a few colours are visible on screen at any one time, this does help keep the game running at a good speed but considering the same game could be converted to lower end machines without any changes (ZX Spectrum, BBC etc) it does nothing to impress the CPC owners. This same game has been remade time and time again by different software houses in the PD world, makes you wonder who had the idea in the first place really.

Sound

Sound is not quite as bad, in traditional Amsoft style there isn?t any title music at the front of the game but plenty of in-game sounds to keep you on your toes. A great effort has been made on most fronts but considering the quality of the game it?s a bit of a waste of time.

Gameplay

Gameplay is reasonable, it?s one of those games that will have you thinking for about 5 minutes what you?re supposed to be doing (unless you owned the original game) but you soon realise that you can only shoot the atom with the black dot on top of it, a bit silly considering there?s loads of yellow ones and only one black spotted atom. Anyway once you manage to shoot the spotted atom you move on to the next stage in which the walls on the left and right have grown in size and the guards that patrol the area have also expanded.
It?s not the worst game Amsoft or Romik have ever done but considering two software houses were on board you?ld be right to expect more, all we can say hear is be thankful that you didn?t spend £2.99 on the game and got it for free or at most 10 pence down your local Sunday market.