Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
After years of weapons platform action and risky venture games , puzzle games and other merriment digression , Pangea Software has returned to its roots withPangea Arcade , a economic value - price collection of three arcade - panache natural process games exhort by classic coin - op offering and available entirely for leverage through Pangea ’s internet situation . Combined , they ’re decidedly worth the low price , unless this eccentric of gameplay does n’t invoke to you at all .
Pangea Arcade include Nucleus , a biz that play likeAsteroidsmixed with thePeriodic Table of Elements ; Firefall , a 3 - D redux of one of Pangea ’s first button , and Warheads , which unabashedly adopt fromMissile Commandfor its stirring .
base on colonnade biz that are , in some character , more than 25 year sure-enough , it may come as a shock that Pangea Arcade exact fairly hefty system requirements , relatively — a G4/1GHz or fast , 512 Bachelor of Medicine RAM and 64 MB VRAM . But once you take a look at Pangea Arcade you ’ll sympathize . This is no mere homage to those Hellenic games — it reinvent them and adds the sophisticated 3 - 500 graphics , particle effect , physics and even 3 - D audio frequency ( if your Mac is so equipped ) that today ’s gamers carry . Each game is beautiful to look at .
In Nucleus , you observe yourself in the cockpit of a triangular spaceship floating amongst the debris of an asteroid field . You ’re there to blow up the asteroid , surely , but there ’s a method acting to your madness : You ’re really trying to tack factor by grabbing stray electrons that appear after you ’re done blowing up the space rocks . The electrons will automatically fall into your spaceship ’s gravitational field and follow you around the game blind like an obedient pup until you locate the glowing nucleus — get close enough , and the cell nucleus will attract the electron . Get enough electron ( one for hydrogen , two for helium , three for lithium , and so on ) and the cell nucleus will collapse into a singularity — a black gob . Then it ’s time to get out of Dodge , because the singularity sucks up everything in its wake — including your spaceship .
Nucleus
That ’s essentially the end of the level — you keep build bigger and bigger atoms , and you ’ll find that the shapes and conditions of the outer space rocks commute with each progressive grade . There are incentive you may grab — you’ll find Powerup Pods floating in space that will give you additional points , new weapon system , a free life , a “ Supernova ” that blows up all the asteroids on the screen , and more . A heads up show make it sluttish to place the nearest nucleus with a favorable pointer showing you the right direction to travel . You ’ll occasionally have to sidestep oncoming comets , which will blow you up if they get too stuffy .
Warheads accompany the definitive Missile Command format — you have three nation - ground missile launchers that are protecting a serial publication of power station . Incoming payload peril both the king station and your missile rocket launcher . You use three different buttons to fire missiles from each individual launcher ( either key on the keyboard or button on your mouse , if so furnished ) . You have a limited provision of ammo so you have to make each shot numeration — in particular when the foeman projectile start to break off into individual warheads and take multiple trajectory towards your power station and projectile catapult .
Warheads
To abuse that old biz idea up a notch , Pangea now puts you in charge of four different sectors , each filled with missile launcher and stations . A quick pan of the camera to the left or right will bring you to the new sector , so you have to lose four disjoined times in order for the game to be over . That can bump in a flash , though , so you have to stay on your toes .
Your project is n’t unacceptable , however , thanks to the presence of powerups that condescend on parachutes . you could collect fillip points , increase the volatile force of your missiles , create a “ mega boom , ” or reload your missile catapult ’s cartridge clip with fresh ammunition .
Firefall is an homage toCentipedewith a touch ofGalagathrown in for good measure . You receive yourself in a ship curtail to the bottom of the screen , on a playfield filled with round barriers that look like a cross between donut and life preservers . worm fall from the top of the screen , while other hazard such as buzzsaws , screw , and more appear . Your goal is to shoot each single segment of the worm before it reaches the bottom of the screen .
Firefall
Six worms seem on each level . At the end of the grade there ’s a fillip round where bonus drone come along , flying all over the screen in intricate pattern . If you blast them all before they jet off screen , you ’ll be awarded a incentive of 10,000 points . There are three waves of bonus drones on each bonus level .
In add-on to bollocks up up the worms , you could also dart barriers to get them out of your way and secure a unmortgaged snapshot . now and again you ’ll see a tablet - form powerup descend from where a barrier used to be — powerups include triple - shot , which makes bullets amount out of either side of your ship , louse - seeking bullets , freeze , which suspend everything on screen , and more . There ’s also a powerdown that you ’ll need to avoid — the green shortshot downgrade .
Of the three games , Nucleus was the one I liked the good — blow up the asteroids was challenging enough , and the addition of building atoms is a fun deflexion . payload is certainly a nice refresh of Missile Command , though there really is n’t anything spectacularly new about it . Of the three games , Firefall makes the raspy transition to 2006 — I remember the original Firefall well . ( It first stoop in the other ’ ninety . ) While this Firefall is prettier than the original and the fillip stages are fun enough , I was still give wanting — Ambrosia Software ’s excellent Apeiron far exceeds it in terms of production value and fun .
As we ’ve make out to have a bun in the oven from Pangea , production quality is top - notch . The games feature great music and legal effect , and if you ’re lucky enough to be using a Mac that has a 3 - five hundred audio circuit board or FireWave adapter from Griffin , you could even learn the audio gist in 3 - D ( since Pangea Arcade apply a technology called OpenAL to handle positional audio ) .
The bottom line
All in all , Pangea Arcade is a competent and mostly fun reinterpretation of authoritative colonnade games ; Firefall left me wanting , though .
