Review: Space Tripper

Reviewed By: Kirk Hiner

Review Date: July 31, 2001

Genre: Arcade/Action

Format: Shareware

Developer: Pom Pom

Minimum Requirements: 300MHz G3, 64MB RAM, 25MB hard disk space, OpenGL video card, MacOS 9

Network Feature: No

3D Support: OpenGL

OS X Support: On its way

Retail Price: $12.00

Availability: Now

Rating: Not Rated

"No story, no background, no plot, no friends."

Okay, now some of you all might just be saying to yourself, "Hiner, it sounds like Sylvester Stallone is attempting yet another comeback." Not so, in this case. I mean, he may be, but that's not what we're looking at here.

It's odd, really. I don't care what the product, using the tag line above is pretty much marketing suicide these days. No story? No plot? Everyone loves a plot, right? Isn't that everyone's complaint with movies such as "The Mummy Returns" and "Jurassic Park 3?"

"Oh, I hated Jurassic Park. It was so stupid. All it was was dinosaurs eating people. There was no plot at all."

This is going to sound hypocritical coming from me, but people--when you've got dinosaurs eating humans for an hour and a half, that's enough. Keep your stupid plots, I just want to see me some dinosaur jaws in motion.

The same goes for video games. Although the truly classic games use strong stories to draw players into the game (Deus Ex, anyone? Full Throttle? Myth?), sometimes all we need is action. In this case, all we need is Space Tripper.

In the grand tradition of arcade games past, Space Tripper unabashedly forgoes any semblance of story. After all, did we need to know why we were being bombed in Missile Command? Of course not. Did it matter from where we were trying to escape in Berserk? No way. And whereas most of the modernized arcade classics are now trying to give us reasons to play (check out the latest arcade updates from MacSoft), Space Tripper just drops you in the game and lets you have at it. As PomPom puts it, "It's blast or be blasted."

So yes, when I first booted up Space Tripper, I was expecting to find yet another semi-cool "diversion" game that would be a good way to kill time between the major releases. Huh uh. What I got was, in this reviewer's opinion, one of the greatest shareware games ever released on the Macintosh.

I'll get into gameplay in a moment. First, lets talk about the graphics. I've grown to expect outstanding visuals in games from companies such as Id and Ion Storm. Even some of the smaller companies like Pangea Software continue to impress me with their products. I don't, however, expect to be dazzled by shareware. But when I first loaded up Space Tripper, I was stunned. Honestly, all I could do was stare at the screen and wonder how this game could only cost $12.00. The graphics are colorful and crisp, and the motion is amazingly fluid. Even the loading screens are cool in their own simple way. But more than that, the level designers apparently paid special attention to aesthetics. The backdrops manage to be striking without interfering with the action taking place over them.

This is important, because the action is intense. I selected "easy mode" for my first outing, and was promptly destroyed without making it out of the training arena. Three or four tries later, I finally completed the first level. Okay, great. Only thirteen more to go. At this rate, I may have the game finished in time for Christmas dinner.

PomPom, in going for that "retro" feel, decided to take it to the extreme...no saved games. Not only is it impossible to save a game after completing a level, but also, after losing a ship, you must start that level over again from the beginning. No matter how close you were to destroying the boss, it's back to square one. It doesn't matter if you played for three hours and made it to level twelve. If you quit the game, you're going to begin in at level one. You are afforded the option to turn on the continue feature, allowing you to at least begin at the last level completed after all your ships have been destroyed, but this can prove maddening as it only lasts until you exit the game. This prompts many late night justifications of, "Okay, one more try, then I swear I'm going to bed." When you're one level away from the next arena, you don't want to quit and have to begin again at the beginning tomorrow.

Another element that feeds the addiction is the simplicity of the gameplay. While piloting your craft, you can fire, switch directions, and change weapons. That's it. Three buttons. And get this...two weapons. That's correct, two weapons; a straight-on power shot and a weaker spray. Knowing when to use what is the key to survival, and you're forced to learn quickly.

Although PomPom states the gameplay is based on the classic Williams game Defender, this is like saying the the F-20 Tigershark is based on a paper airplane. The arenas are basically rectangular playing objects filled with enemy craft, cannons, etc., and they grow more complex as the game progresses. You pilot your craft back and forth across the arenas, clearing out everything along the way. A radar above the playing field indicates where the enemies are located, and you're only given a limited amount of time to hunt them down and destroy them. Of course, you won't wnat to take up too much time, anyway...they're hunting you as well.

Gravity is also your enemy in this game. Fly off the playing field, and you lose a life. It may not seem hard to avoid the edges, but when you're dodging enemy fire from all directions while trying to blow-up a generator on the tip of the playing field, more often than not you'll find yourself falling into the abyss.

That's really all there is to it, people, but that's all you'll need. In the movies, with the right visual effects and style, humans being stalked by dinosaurs is enough to successfully drive a film for a couple hours. Likewise, with the right balance of visuals and action, a lone spaceship battling incredible forces, for whatever reason, is enough to make a game great.

"No story, no background, no plot, no friends." With games like Space Tripper, who needs them?

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