Thursday, July 17, 2014

Vanguard Arcade Review!



Here's a look at a classic from 1981! Published in the United States by Centauri but originally published in Japan by SNK it's Vanguard! The game spawned a sequel three years later, you can play it on various SNK collections but I've yet to see an actual machine of Vanguard II. I knew this game very well as a kid through the Atari 2600 port. I didn't get to play the actual arcade version of it until I visited FunSpot about ten years ago.

Unlike the home version the game has four directional fire buttons which kind of makes the game play like a mix between Stern's Scramble and Robotron where stuff can fly towards you in any direction. This game was an early example of speech in a game after Taito made Stratovox a year prior in 1980. The game even has the classic Star Trek theme, which I'm very surprised got past legal teams.

This game also has a very famous commercial for the Atari 2600 where of course they say, "It plays just like the real arcade game!!" and the ever popular, Luther destroys The Gond!!" A true classic and well worth checking out! If you've got a PSP or PS3 you can download both Vanguard games as a part of their Playstation Mini Collection. The sound's a bit off but the gameplay is still rock solid!

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