Monday, 9 May 2011

Phaeton (ZX Spectrum)



Although there's no shooting involved (at least not from the player ship) there is still plenty of Cybernoid-style exploration to be done, with switches to open locked doors and isotopes to locate and collect.  In easy mode you have an unlimited number of orbital direction changes at your disposal (although the fixed pause between switches still means that you cannot keep the satellites' positions static), whereas in difficult mode the game is nigh impossible - you have a limited number of changes that are only incremented when you successfully collect the radioactive canisters.

Despite some excellent graphics and solid game design, Phaeton is not without a few minor flaws.  Upon loading the game you are treated to an excellent title track by the reknown Mister Beep, but as soon as you press the start button the music stops; there is no in-game music at all and the sound effects are minimal (which to be fair is unsurprising for a 48KB game).  It's a shame that Phaeton doesn't make use of the 128KB Spectrum's extra RAM, but it's hardly a game-breaker.  The other issue is of course the game's speed (or lack of); Phaeton does feel very slow to play, which can be both off-putting and frustrating for people looking for a more 'twitch' gameplay experience (which really is what this type of game should be).

In conclusion, Phaeton is an enjoyable little game with some original ideas that I for one would like to see expanded on in the future (and perhaps on a more powerful computer).
Download it here (from the World Of Spectrum website).
3 out of 5

1 comment:

  1. Whoops - I originally posted this at about 5AM after a night shift and left out the first paragraph. Now corrected (back-ups FTW).