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Hotshot |
Copyright/Publisher: Addictive Games, Created By: Maxwell Technology,
Release Year: 1988, Genre: Weird Sports, Number Of Players: 1 or 2
In an arena of the distant future robots, humanoids and space creatures battle
ofr supremacy. The aim of every competitor is to become the Hotshot of the
tournament.
You are allocated control of one of three available characters: an armour-clad
human with an airblaster, a bug-eyed alien with an elephantine trunk and a
hopping biped robot with a built-in gun turret. Five timed stages follow.
Stage one is a dual Breakout game. The player aims at a set of bricks above
him while on the other side of the screen, his opponent has another set of blocks
to destroy. The ball is caught by directing the gun nozzle to catch the sphere.
If you fail, a life is lost and control passes to the other player.
The next stage is directly based on pinball: points are scored by directing
the ball on to bumpers. Each player is given his own ball and has to gain as
high a score as possible.
Water plays a part in stage three; hitting a red brick will cause water
in the adjacent half on the screen to rise a fraction, until you or your opponent
are completely submerged. Hitting red bricks will cause the water in your half
to lower.
Next comes an open screen with pinball obstacels and a group of blocks
awkwardly placed near its base. A huge bonus is given for clearing them all away.
The final stage is a one-on-one battle. You fire the ball at each outer using
the vortex of a black hole to steer it in unusual directions.
In between games, a simple pinball bonus screen is played.
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M.E. |
Combining old video game ideas often gives them a new lease of life -
combining Breakout and a progresive shoot'em up to produce Arkanoid, for example.
Adding pinball to this combination is no great improvement. In fact, it makes
it worse!
The control method would be all right if the ball didn't act as though it had a
life of its own and fly off in weird directions. Some of the characters are
easier to control than others but you have no say as to the one you control.
All five levels are very similar and will soon bore all but the most fervent
players. The blurb suggests that the black hole is some kind of great event
but it's even more boring than the other screens! Hotshot is (yet again) 'a game
which fails to live up to its potential'. Shame.
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P.G. |
Hotshot is a strange departure for Addictive, as it's totally different from the
recently released and much-hyped Football Manager 2. Their advertising strategy
sports a 'Gold Label Award', which is a tad reminiscent of our very own Gold Medal,
methinks - just as well for them as Hotshot stands no chance of gaining our
ultimate accolde.
A cross between Breakout and Bounces, the graphics are simplistic, ball movement
illogical, and sound feeble. A single-player game is just too frustrating to
bother with but at least with a human opponent there's a sense of competition and a
modicum of pleasure to be had. Ig you're not fussy about value for money,
Hotshot is a reasonable playable two-player game.
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