Retro Arcade Game Review: Nautilus
Nautilus is a fast action game of sub and destroyer warfare. As captain of the Nautilus you are given the job of destroying enemy cities block by block and capturing the proto-pods that lie inside them. Proto-pods give the Nautilus energy that is vital to the engines, defence and life support systems. Above, the destroyer Colossus moves between shore lines carrying repair crews that rebuild the cities you destroyed.
The Nautilus commander must alternate between destroying cities, picking up proto-pods, and keeping the Colossus from reaching the west shore. The colossus depth charges and Barracuda missiles that lock on to your position and relentlessly pursue you. Between the two shores there is a vast underwater cave system in which you must journey through on your way to destroy the cities. Beware though, intelligent Limpet Lurkers materialize in the depths to hunt you out, and electronic locks are activated at the entrances of caves to slow you down. The game uses one or two players, allowing either the computer or a human opponent to operate the Colossus. Each game has a one to nine minute time limit. Though you have unlimited “lives”, it takes five seconds for both the Colossus and Nautilus to be repaired. The Nautilus has an unlimited number of Thunderbolt torpedoes to deploy, which takes no extra energy to fire.
Colossus will drop depth charges and one barracuda missile at a time. Quick reflexes are a must, though, as the Colossus moves between the docks on the east shore to the deployment area on the west at roughly twice the speed of the Nautilus. Colossus gains points for each city-block repaired, and Nautilus for each destroyed. To aid the Nautilus, there is a support helicopter which is constantly bent on damaging Colossus. If Colossus is damaged, the ship is automatically returned to base, then repaired and deployed. The game has nine challenging skill levels and a handicap option which governs the amount of points the Colossus receives, between 10 and 80, for each city block repair. To the beginner, this game is enjoyably frustrating, as even nicking a cave wall will send you crashing to the bottom. With a little persistence, though, you’ll soon find that you can handle even the tightest squeeze.
The graphics are the highlight of the game, with a beautifully scrolling split screen showing the progress of both the Nautilus and Colossus. The underwater world is an excellent concept, creating an exciting adventure in which to explore and play, something that typical single screen arcade games lack. The Nautilus and Colossus are well portrayed on the screen and the sound effects are quite good. Documentation comes in the form of a small but thorough seven page booklet. It gives a player everything he needs to get going, except strategy notes. There is also a small bug in the program which sometimes places an not movable and not destroyable barracuda missile on the ocean surface. Since the Nautilus needs only to go around it, this does not affect the playing of the game to any great extent. Otherwise, Nautilus is very well designed and written.
Truly, Synapse has produced another top rate game with outstanding graphics and intense action.
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