Here we are again with the longest Brad Blasts the Galactic Barbarians Review. Gosh this is one of the longest titles of a game.
I mean your expectations cannot be more unclear when meeting such a title. Even though most space titles on the Sinclair Spectrum machine tend to be very good.
Title Picture
To the game itself, to start with I need to confess that I did not have the patience to play the whole game. You will understand further into the review why. Your mission is to go through a set of challenges to reach the Serum Lab do destroy the serum.
You start with an automatic take off and get your way out into space. Your first challenge is to fight spaceships, aliens and meteors. Avoid them or a new “Brad” will have take off.
If you survive long enough you will reach the SSS Space Station that is blocked by a number of evil aliens. You need to destroy them all to have the chance to enter the dangerous docking station.
Instructions
Here is where I stopped. You may ask why? Well to start with, every time you die you return to the take off seen. This is after some games so annoying that you don’t know what to do anymore. When you die you always start from the first scenery – the game is not that fun to redo the same scenery over and over again.
And if that was not enough. Starting a new game forces you to go through two information screens. I really get tired on games where it is cool a first time. But later you want skip them.
Launch Pad
The controls in the game are quite unresponsive and each movement is very blunt.
But if you summarize the first level you find a mixture of asteroids, Space Invaders and Jupiter Lander.
%
Our Playability rating
In the Magazines
As can be deduced from the title this is an arcade style game with a couple of unusual touches to it . One of which is the use of a tickertape type of display at the base of the screen which gives a resume of the story so far. You play the role of Brad whose mission (should you care to accept it!) is to try and reach the planet Delta 10, upon which reside the warlike Galactic Barbarians who have discovered a super power serum, which you must destroy. Sounds easy eh! Well you have five stages to battle through before discovering the secret lab. Nothing particularly special about this game although some variety in the screens does give it a somewhat addictive quality. The graphics are good, the sounds, given the Spectrum’s somewhat limited ability, are adequate, but one minor irritation is having to go through all the instructions each time the game is played which is rather time consuming. An interesting point with this game is it’s strange ability to be able to interfere with cordless telephones!!
Scene 1
While fighting through level two strange sounds were heard to emanate from my telephone upon picking up the receiver I found I had called someone in Australia, quite a useful feature in a games program although somewhat random in its application. Perhaps the computer was trying to contact the Galactic Barbarians by phone and save the trouble finding the secret lair .. . The cursor keys are 0 to fire 5-left, 8-right, and 6-down which I found somewhat difficult, a nice feature would have been user defined keys but I suppose a member of the Intergalactic Security Network should not be concerned with such mundane matters. Overall this is quite an interesting game but not one that would keep me up to the early hours. There are far too many games of the “zap em all” variety for this to be anything special, but worth it’s purchase price, I suppose!!
Scene 2
From Games Computing August 1984
On the Covers
A cartoon like cover. The cover design from Express Software has it all. Typical deep black colours as on many. A vivid action filled scene. Seeing the cover your expectations are set to the highest level. I love the fonts they have used. And is’nt it so that when you use strong colours and background colours on the fonts the cover rises to a different level. The only downside on this cover is that the game is nowhere near to the cover.
So cartoon like, vivid colours, colourful fonts and action. This equals a great cover.
%
Our Cover Rating
BRAD BLASTS THE GALACTIC BARBARIANS The year is 2052, the planet Earth — headquarters of the Intergalactic Security Network (ISN). In recent years relations with a neighbouring planet called Delta 10 have become increasingly cold. Its inhabitants, a once peaceful tribe of Galactic Barbarians, have become more and more warlike. ISN have been warned that the Barbarians have discovered the formula for a super power serum.
This tips the balance of power in the Barbarians favour, and there is talk of them mounting an attack against Earth. Brad Stevens who is a member of Earth’s elite SSS (Special Space Service) has been ordered to destroy the serum, You must help him in his mission.
STAGE 1 (flight through space)100pts objects/200pts per Moon Battle to reach the SSS Space Station while Enemy Fighters, Comets and Asteroids block your way.
STAGE 2 (Docking) 100 points per Alien Destroy the Galactic Barbarians, who have surrounded the space station, and complete a hazardous docking manoeuvre.
STAGE 3 (flight to Delta 10) 10 points per craft Try to reach Delta 10 by fighting off hoards of Barbarians.
STAGE 4 (walk to laboratory) 200 points per Scout Land on the planet and eliminate the Barbarian scouting party.
STAGE 5 (inside laboratory) 100 points per Cyborg Locate the Serum Lab by fighting the Cyborgs in the labyrinth, a maze of electrified passageways.
