A genuine innovator jets off for one more mission
This week sees retro game publisher Hamster blast off into outer space for the latest entry in its Arcade Archives range. And this week we’re goingwayback, with the return of one of the oldest shmups of all time,Scramble, now available to download on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Released by Konami back in 1981,Scramblewas the first-ever forced-scrolling shmup, and alternate to Williams’Defender, with both games released mere weeks apart.Scramblesees a pilot control a small vessel through a series of stages, taking out waves of enemies, bombing ground targets, and navigating asteroid fields.
Fuel tanks must be destroyed to keep your brave little ship ripping through the stars, en route to the final confrontation with an enemy base. As was the style of the time, completing the six areas results in the game restarting at a higher difficulty setting.
Surprisingly complex and colourful for ’81, with fast action and great sound effects, the importance of Scramble and its genre-defining gameplay cannot be overstated. Of course it may seem a tad simple in modern eyes, well-versed in the ways ofIkaruga, ESP-Ra-De, R-TypeandParodius, but still, raise a much-deserved toast toScramble, the game that defined a genre.
Scrambleis available to download now on Nintendo Switch, priced at around $8.
