Air-Sea Battle

The Good
Air-Sea Battle for the Atari 2600 (VCS) has no shortage of variety with twenty-seven different variations. Anti-Aircraft, Torpedo, Shooting Gallery, Polaris, Bomber, and Polaris vs. Bomber, each with their own variations of standard play, guided missiles, or standard vs. computer. The Anti-Aircraft, Torpedo, and Polaris vs. Bomber games also have each variation with or without obstacles in the firing field.

For the time, I would say it was a very clever use of a few variables while giving the player nearly every permutation.

The graphics and sound effects are rudimentary, but OK for the era, and the fact that every game is 2 minutes 16 seconds (an odd choice, but probably based on the clock speed and a power of two for an easy countdown for the hardware) keeps things flowing and allows you to switch up the game regularly.

I could see this game being very popular in a living room with the whole family or kids' friends all wanting to take a turn, playing the winner, or even setting up a tournament to get bragging rights until next Saturday.

The Bad
That being said, it does get repetitive, even with all the variations. And with the computer just constantly firing at a steady pace, the player vs. computer games are barely more stimulating than playing a standard game with no opponent at all.

Realistically, this game really needs two players to be any real fun, and a group of players taking turns would be even better to break the repetitiveness, and it wouldn't be long before much more interesting games came along.

The Bottom Line
Air-Sea Battle is a shooting gallery game with lots of variations, but in the end it's still pretty much the same shooting gallery game. It's not worth your time without at least one other player, and preferably between 4 and 8 players in total, taking turns, for variations in skill and strategy.

The game itself is only one part of the fun. Classify this as a party game.

Best played with a group of friends who enjoy friendly competition in a basement on an old CRT TV, shag carpet, wood panelled walls, and some 1970s classic rock playing in the background.