Space Phreeks

The Good
Space Phreeks is a great game from Interesting Software, the same crowd who gave us Nightcrawler and Quackers also for the VIC-20. It has the same core mechanics as Galaxian, including the scrolling star background and the multi-colored aliens firing the occasional shot at you.

The game starts with a nice loading screen, something that is always missing from VIC-20 tape-based games. You take control of a ship that must move left or right, dodging the alien’s bullets. The ship itself is drawn nicely; it actually looks like one of the ships from “Star Wars”. I like the way the aliens themselves are different shapes. One of them is shaped like a heart for instance. When you get killed, the result explosion looks excellent.

The game is quite challenging as the aliens have different attack patterns. You may well be able to dodge their bullets while you are trying to take them out in the early waves, but by the third wave the same aliens fly off the bottom edge then come back up again in order to give you a nasty surprise. At least the aliens have one thing in common: they appear from the edge of the screen, dance around a bit, then fly off again. They do this four times, so if you want to save lives it’s a matter of waiting near the edge of the screen, because after they fly off for the fourth time, you proceed to the next level.

Space Phreeks tracks what high score you earned in the game, so people will be out to “score attack” the game. There are also some people who will say to themselves “just one more go” in an attempt to get through all 15 levels. I am trying to get past level four myself.

The Bad
Nothing bad about this game.

The Bottom Line
Space Phreeks is another VIC-20 game that everyone should have in their collection, especially if they enjoy playing Galaxian. The graphics are great, the sound is great, and there is always that addictiveness of beating your high score. Classic.