Purple Saturn Day
| Developer: ERE | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Exxos | Sound: |
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| Year: 1989 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Futuristic sport | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
4/10 | |
It’s party time on Saturn! The sky’s purple, the queen’s in heat, which means the new year’s games are about to begin. Eight athletes from across the galaxy will face off in a spectacular series of four events (yes, four—really pushing the limits here)! The prize? A huge French kiss personally delivered by the sovereign herself (she knows what she’s owed).
[You guessed it, another salacious joke that didn’t live past the translation. – Ed.]
This high-flying science fiction title, the successor to Captain Blood, offers you four mini-games to test your piloting skills, dexterity, and also your ability to decode ridiculously convoluted concepts. All these events are one-on-one, and the winner of each series advances to the next stage of the tournament (quarters, semis, and final).
In the first event, titled Ring Pursuit, you race through Saturn’s rings, dodging debris and asteroids (think Encounter style). To score points, you must already be in the lead, then turn right at the red stuff and left at the yellow stuff. Be careful though, if you mix them up, your opponent gets the points!
The second event, Tronic Slider, is like a two-player bumper car game. Your goal is to shoot at a runaway energy ball and collect the pieces before your opponent does (image).
The third event: Brain Bowler. It’s basically the same as Extase (by the same author), a bizarre puzzle where you try to light up six little bulbs on the right side of the screen by fixing the connections in an electronic brain. You can sabotage your opponent’s work too (image).
Finally, in the last event, Time Jump, you use a gravitational catapult to travel through time. In practice, shoot at energy balls to capture them, recharge your batteries, then hold the button to launch yourself into the future. Woo-hoo… (image)
I’m usually a fan of these quirky games, but this one feels a bit like a rip-off. If you’re going to make a compilation of sports events in a sci-fi setting, why limit it to four? And why not allow two players to join in?
More illustrations here and there.
Note: Go for the Atari ST version.
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