Jet Pac: Solar Crisis
Website: retrospec.sgn.net
Original: JetPac - Ultimate (1983)
Ah, a game from Retrospec, so you know there’ll be some quality even if you have a dislike of them, the Spice Girls of the remakes scene (Graham Goring has a great rack and puts out for footballers if the rumours are true). And, it’s true, the game has quality by the bucket…
You have to rescue 9 probes from various locations in the solar system, while avoiding the various alien menaces. The concept of rebuilding the probes and refuelling them remains the same but a few additional touches have been added into the game to extend the game play.
Firstly, you arrive and depart from each level by your own ship. If this lands too hard at the start of the level you have to take extra time to collect repair pods. Hence, each level starts as a very basic version of Lunar Lander… as long as you can remember that you need to press ‘up’ as the level starts, you’ll land perfectly. Unfortunately, being so easy, it adds little to the game itself and could have done with a little further thought.
The next thing you’ll notice is that Mr Jet Pac has been given the jet pack from the 1970s 007 flick, Thunderball, rather than the 21st century equivalent. Trying to take off is an exercise in frustration as enemies hurtle towards you leaving lovers of the original game rather cold. The jet pack is more unmanageable when carrying probe parts, adding an element of ‘realism’ to the game, and this I like; it’s just unfortunate that the unladen movement is so hampered. Maybe he should cut down on those NASA liquid pies…
Besides those two niggles with the game play, the rest of the game is a fun, effect-filled retro-fest. Picking up mushrooms makes the screen wobble while flying goats and toilets pass you by. Meteorites bombard the ground with crunching explosions, lightning strikes from the heavens, all providing a little more danger to the game as you progress. There are little cameo appearances of Sabreman and Zub as they run across the bottom of the screen, although these are easily missed in the frantic action. All of these little bits just add to the polish of this game.
You’ll play this game a few times before you come around to it; the first few times it is a case of ‘what the hell have they done to the controls?’. But, given the chance, it will grow on you and could be just as addictive as the original if you didn’t have better things to do.