Star Fox by Mythicon (Atari 2600)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Star Fox by Mythicon (Atari 2600)

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

Looks like the Atari 2600 has obscure and trash shooters like some modern consoles does.
This time is the 1983 shmup Star Fox by Mythicon.



Image
Trash from Corneria's waste disposal facilities.

Mythicon's Star Fox takes place in the year 4024 AD. The story begins as a robot freighter carrying a cargo of extremely valuable Trimetalisium energy crystals crash lands on the planetoid Beta-7. An enemy star cruiser, escorted by a squadron of fighter drones, is en route to the planetoid to seize the crystals.

The concept of Star Fox looks simple: Grab crystals before the enemy does, Like Defender and Snoopy and the Red Baron, this game is a infinite looping scenery horizontal shooter where do you have to track the crystal but you have also to deal with the enemy. Fortunately, you only have to deal with one before the next one appear, just like in Snoopy and the Red Baron (another 1 VS 1 shmup). But there's a few problems with the crystal hunting part. First: The crystal size, its too small enough it requires an eagle-eyed player to find it out on the bottom of the screen, this is a hassle when you're dodging the enemy because of how fast the screen scrolling is. Second, the crystals are very ellusive at the point that most of the times you'll have to fly at very low altitude to have a chance and try to pick one, and I say try because that's what you'll end up doing; failed attempts since those small bastards go all the way down the screen and you have to wait and move in a short scrolling pace until you find one. This is when the Third part of the game comes up: If you go down to pick one, you can only move vertically as if your ship assumes the landing mode. This makes you vulnerable to an enemy attack.

Audiovisually, is garbage. This lack of background, even for an Atari game is quite empty, despite the use of gradients in the sky and surface. There's only two buildings in the background to break the neverending monotony, along with your ship and your enemy. Once you lose a life, if you don't move the ship, the game's colors will randomly change as if it was on "Stand By Mode" (which is the best part of the game in my opinion). Pressing any button or any direction will return the colors to their defaults. There's no music in the game and only an annoying "TTTTTTNNNNNNNNNNNNNN" that will make you shut the damn console off or at least mute the TV.


STAR CURIOSITIES
- The front cover of the game says "Game 1 in the Star Fox Series". No sequels were ever made (I'm not surprised why).
- Don't be confused with Nintendo's StarFox which was released 10 years later on the Super Nintendo.


Mythicon's Star Fox is nothing more than just Atari trash. I think this is the real reason behind Atari's death and not their version of Pac-Man as some use to think.
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