Written by: Roger Fulton

<rfulton@mail.on.rogers.wave.ca>

Originally posted to the handheld list

For those of you not around in the eighties, Zaxxon was the "next generation" space shooter from Sega. You commanded a ship attacking a futuristic space fort, to kill the monster robot called Zaxxon.

This game was one that I had imagined would be impossible to pull off in a handheld form. Unlike the other Coleco tabletops, the arcade game has a 3-D, third person perspective that was revolutionary for the time. But, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it works. It uses two VFD's and a mirror to simulate the 3-d and achieves it surprisingly well.

Game play: (5 out of 5) Damn hard, but also fair. The control is much tighter than most other VFD games I've played. The ship responds quickly and there is a lot of room to maneuver (15 positions on the screen). The game moves surprisingly fast and there are a large amount of objects on the screen. The second skill level is really difficult, due to the addition of "Force fields" on top of the walls. Your fight with the mighty Zaxxon robot is very different from the arcade, as it just sits at the end of the play field, but I guess it was a compromise that had to be made for the format. My only quibble is that it is a bit easy to die twice from the same ship, since after dying your ships starts out at the same place.

Graphics: (5 out of 5) Perhaps the best, clearest graphics I've seen on a VFD. The walls at the side of playfield really help give the illusion of 3-d. The scrolling effect is extremely well done. I'm not usually fond of "mirrored" games, but this one really does work.

Sound: (4 out of 5) A little bit more than your basic chirps. The "space fuzz" sound during Game play from the arcade is intact. Most of the other sounds are close to the arcade.

Appearance: (5 out of 5) Very attractive BIG unit, nice side art. Joystick even has a sticker on the top to represent the arcade button. Control panel is a duplicate of the arcade.

Summary: One of the best, well worth the sometimes hefty price tag it commands. It will keep you occupied for a good while and looks damn cool on the shelf. The current most played game in my collection.