Planet Patrol Review

In the aftermath of Space Invaders and Defender, space shooters became very nearly a dime a dozen on the Atari 2600. Whether by Atari or by third parties, many such games found their way onto the system. Some were good and some were not. Planet Patrol by Spectravision is one of those which was more along the Defender line, a horizontal scrolling shooter. But is the game any good? Read on to find out.

The concept of the game is reasonably simple. You control a ship on the right side of the screen up and down. The background and the moving ships give the illusion of a scrolling screen. You can fire at enemy ships, but swords come flying at you as well and you are unable to attack those. You also have limited fuel and cannot fire if you run out, thus pretty much turning the game into a stalemate. Making the game even more interesting is that sometimes night will fall and you will have to fire to see where your enemies are on the screen. All of this makes this game a good progression from games like Defender.

Graphically, the game looks like it should. You definitely get the feeling from the color scheme and detail of the background that you are dealing with a planet in need of being defended. The enemies all look good as well. On the sound front, there is not really anything to get excited about. The sound effects are okay, nothing more, but they still get the job done. Overall, the game is pretty good aesthetically.

Is this a game that is going to have the lasting appeal of Space Invaders or Defender? No, not by a long shot. However, it can be nice to play in short bursts and is therefore worth looking for if you are a fan of games like this. It will not last the longest, but it is reasonably enjoyable while it lasts. There is some selection of game modes as well, although not as much as in some games of this type.