Reader Reviews Retro Special

Starquake (Spectrum 48K)

by Blerk

What is the greatest platform game of all time? Super Mario World? Sonic? Mario 64? These titles are bandied around with alarming regularity whenever you ask this question, and with good reason - they're all great, great games. The people who support them are, however, entirely wrong. The best platform game ever created is in fact 'Starquake'. No arguments.

Released in 1985 by the relatively unknown 'Bubble Bus', Starquake was the second game programmed for them by Steve Crow (his first being 'shameless but still excellent' Atic Atac clone 'Wizard's Lair'). You stepped into the shoes of BLOB, a cute little round guy charged with the task of saving the Earth from a rogue planet which has just popped out of a black hole. The planet is so unstable that it's about to explode, so your only possible course of action is to go there and repair the unstable core. With umbrellas. And fire extinguishers. And microchips. Y'know, the usual stuff.

What this boils down to is a fantastic flick-screen platformer. BLOB runs around the huge play-area shooting stuff and trying to find the correct objects to repair the core. Although he can't jump, BLOB can use handily placed anti-gravity platforms to fly around and has a limited supply of bridge platforms that he can use to reach higher places. There are pick-ups aplenty to replenish his health and firepower, and a whole network of teleporters and security gates to navigate along the way.

Starquake really is a great example of what the Spectrum can do when programmed well. The graphics are neat and colourful with minimal attribute clash, the tunes are nice and the sound effects pleasantly squelchy, and the game itself plays like a dream. Throw in the fact that the objects are randomly placed each time you play and you have a game that you could potentially play forever without getting bored.