Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

So what to say? It was an addictive game that quickly fell into oblivion, because it didn’t stand out from the rest in any way, but it’s still a pleasant time waster you might want to try, if you fancy yet another shooter.

While Buck Rogers certainly isn’t the worst shooter I’ve ever played, there are a lot better ones for the 5200, such as Beamrider, River Raid and Star Wars: Arcade to name a few. Play them instead and you’ll have much more fun!

Not up to the usual US Gold standard but still equal to all the other look-alikes.

Remember Gil Gerard and his little robot friend Twiki from the Buck Rogers TV show? Relax, they aren't in this game. Buck Rogers is no classic, but the 5200 version isn't so bad. You fly your ship over a planet surface, weaving between electric posts and blasting UFOs. The psuedo-3D scaling is relatively smooth and looks good, but navigation using the 5200 controller is no walk in the park. I do like how a counter at the top of the screen keeps track of your progress. Each of the five levels ends with a confrontation in deep space with a mother ship that looks like a double tie-fighter. Holding down the fire button initiates rapid fire, which is always a good thing. Buck Rogers plays fairly well despite some occasional collision detection glitches. One aspect I hate is how the screen flashes and makes an explosion sound whenever you complete a stage - it looks like your ship blew up! In the end, Buck Rogers is playable but thoroughly forgettable.

One of the most uninspiring games ever has just been released by US Gold. Buck Rogers - who is he, anyway? - has been licensed from Sega and part of the game adapted for the computer. No doubt US Gold has tried to be faithful to the arcade version, but surely the graphics could be more detailed. After all, the original is a couple of years old with graphics of the Space Invaders era.

We're speaking of the time of those big arcade-machines. They just put together a simple action game and thought of some kind of movie, series, comic - whatever - just something that sounds a bit fancy and might attract some kids. So they did here.

I could deride this game as sloppy and buggy, but since it's pretty ambitious, I'll be nice and call it quirky and unpredictable. Had Sega taken the time to polish this up, it could have been a real gem.

To its credit, Buck Rogers does offer seven distinct stages, taking you into trenches, over planet surfaces, and through deep space before facing the Command Ship boss(!). After defeating the impressively large (but weak) boss, you're rewarded with the text "Nice play. Go on." Buck Roger's audio is equally lame, and its "musical score" (I'm being loose with the language here) sounds like a two-year-old pounding on a Casio keyboard. It's interesting to see all of the stages in Buck Rogers, but once you've done that, the game doesn't have much left to offer.