Remakes
Information
- Author: Matthew Partridge
Pros
- Engaging gameplay
- Good control settings
- Excellent physics
Cons
- No Hubbard music
Links
Thrust Advance
Back in the 1980s, it was common for budget games to sell for as little as £2 (about $3.50). Although most budget games were pretty dire, now and again a real gem would be uncovered, and one such gem was Firebird's Thrust.
Loosely based on arcade games such as Gravitar, the aim of Thrust is to battle against gravity, piloting your ship around increasingly tough levels in order to retrieve pods. Once a pod is attached to your ship, it handles very differently, as the pod's inertia and weight drags your ship around. To make matters worse, your ship gradually loses fuel (extra containers can be found scattered amongst the levels) and is extremely fragile—it blows up upon the slightest contact with any cavern walls, or if hit by a single shot from one of the many gun emplacements. For the last of those problems, you can at least fight back, blowing the guns to pieces with your own weapon.
Thrust is one of those games that feels very pure, and while it might not look like much, it rapidly becomes all-engrossing as you battle against gravity, urging your ship, with pod attached, to take tight turns and not crash into anything. Thrust Advance remains faithful to the original: the graphics are almost identical to the C64 version, and, crucially, the physics within the game seems as fine-tuned as it always was. The omission of Hubbard's excellent C64 soundtrack is a bit of a shame, but other than that, this remake is pretty much perfect.
CG
