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SPACE ARMADA - Mattel Electronics - 1981 - SCORE 100%
Coin operated video game systems appeared in the early seventies, but it would be the take up of Space Invaders in 1978, that bought the arcade video game into the forefront of main-stream popularity. Many variations of the game had followed into the arcade itself, and then as the home video game market developed, so did even more versions of it, appearing under different names and in many cases, slightly tweaked game play.
It would be Intellivision's Space Armada that would take the cake for being the best variation of all, and still by today's video game standards, is a very challenging game to play.
As the player cleared out each frame in space invaders, the degree of difficulty would increase, with the aliens starting at a lower sliding level. In Space Armada, the degree of game play gets harder as each new frame introduces new forms of weaponry. These include super bombs, Invisible aliens, twister bombs and much more.
It's a smooth cruise when you get into the first frame of aliens, on Space Armada, but look out. By the third frame you are introduced to super bombs that explode with a wider destruction path. You don't have to be right under them to be destroyed, but only near enough, to get blown apart. (big orange bombs). Battle gets trickier as invisible aliens appear by the fifth frame. As you work toward the seventh screen, you are confronted by heat seeking trailer bombs, that seek out your rocket. This is where you got to keep your bunkers built up, by shooting the flying saucer on the frames top. The games most difficult part comes on screen nine, when you are fighting a complete invisible force of aliens. This is where it pays to be organised. Don't just shoot aliens in different spots. Try shooting them in tidy columns, so you can keep a tally, on where some of the invisible ones are, just in case they don't appear visible by the frames end.
It's a big sigh of relief when you reach the eleventh frame. All the aliens are visible again, but now the weaponry gets very nasty. Heat seeking twisters flash in front of you in milliseconds, and unless you have your bunkers built up, you are faced with a ruthless battle. Your time is running out and death is inevitable, as the aliens smash your rocket force to the ground. You get lucky and shoot a flying saucer, and a brand new bunker saves the day. You hit another saucer and protection becomes a reality again, but has this game run out of tricks to throw at you? No no no! By the thirteenth screen the saucers come crashing down, on top of your bunkers and destroy them, so shoot them before they do so.
At this point the introduction of new weapons stop. The aliens now sink at a much faster rate so keep yourself on the ball. Shooting a crashing saucer down, will mean protection in the right place, at the right time, as you are now fighting a game at it's top level. It's peddle to the metal all the way, as aliens, bombs, saucers and twisters fly all over the place at lightening speed. One quick slip-up and the game comes to its sudden death.
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