Astro
Chase is such a pretty game to look at, it seems a shame that it isn't
more exciting to play. At first glance Astro Chase looks like a space game
with EVERYTHING. It's got shield depots,it's got energy generators and
it's got pulsating enemy minesso powerful that just one of them can blow
up the entire Earth. It's got a screen full of zillions of colorful
asteroids, planet sand stars, and a picture of Earth so realistic that you
might mistaken it from an actual photo taken from a satellite in
orbit.There are eight different kinds of enemy spacecrafts, 34 difficulty
levels and no less than seven different animation sequences.
Once the game begins, however, the gorgeous 3-D starfield is just another 2-D maze -- with round obstructions instead of walls --through which you must carefully dodge in order to ray down the mines creeping towards the Earth. Enemy spaceships show up at odd intervals to distract you from your main job of eliminating the mines, and you can either shoot them or ram them. It seems the celebrated First Star designer Fernando Herrera either ran out of room for, or forgot about, challenging and innovative game action. Astro Chase is one big letdown and serves as a reminder that graphics are only skin deep.
