Bosconian

Bosconian has been expected for a long time and it finally hit the market in 2017. The ABBUC test team review is to be found in magazine no. 132. Look together at the port of the Namco Arcade game of the same name from the year 1981 together with Dietrich, Floppydoc and Bunsen.

The atmospheric loading screen

The new loading screen is worth to be seen and a second one follows. We can leave either hitting the space bar. The start screen appears and we are greeted by a likewise fresh and slightly weird soundtrack and a few animations. Then we start with the fire button.

The new start screen

We navigate a spaceship in the middle of the screen and we need to destroy all space fortresses in each level. (We can destroy a fortress by shooting down all six fortress cannons or by hitting the read fortress core.) Although we have auto firing forwards and backwards, it isn't easy to hit the core, because the space fortresses fire from all pipes. In addition, we are disturbed by some enemy spaceships: the A-shaped ships are trying to ram us directly, and the V-shaped ships are curving around to meet us from the side. Furthermore, there are asteroids and mines that we can shoot at, too.

Another two fortresses to destroy

The space fortresses' positions are displayed as red dots on the purple map on the right and our own ship is shown as a flashing white one. The edges of the map are each connected (top / bottom or left / right), resulting in a torus-shaped universe. If all space fortresses of a level are destroyed, it continues with the next of a total of 32 levels. If we get hit or rammed, we lose one of our four lives, displayed in the lower right corner. Fortunately, we get one extra life after 20,000 and then every 50,000 points.

Unlike the prototype, the levels get more difficult gradually. Other changes:

• Starting with level 2 the fortress cores are temporarily protected by shields - they can only be destroyed when unprotected (red state).
• Starting with level 3 spy ships are flying around. They are announced with "Spy ship sighted".
• Starting with level 4 enemies attack in formation flight. The formation consists of five ships. The formation dissolves only when we hit the flashing formation leader. This is mandatory because the formation flies faster than our spaceship. This feature did not exist in the prototype.
• Starting with level 8 the fortress cores regularly fire rockets while they shut down their shields.

Help! A formation flight

Graphics:

The graphics are awesome: space stations, ships, mines are colorful and gently scroll past our spaceship, which can always be seen in the middle of the screen. The background with the stars scrolls slower, which results in a spatial effect. In addition, we are surrounded by spaceships, of which up to five or six can be seen simultaneously. On the right we can still see - of course in other colors - the map, the score and the status (condition) to see. We love the great loading screen, the nice start screen and the colorful highscore list.

Sound:

The sound can keep up with the graphics pretty well: Besides the melody in the title screen, the melody after game over and the melody at the highscore list, there are remarkable sound effects. In addition, there are still some fantastic sound samples with the following meaning:

• "Blast Off": Sounds at the start of a level before it starts
• "Alert Alert": Enemy spaceships approaching – status changes from green to yellow
• "Battle Stations": Announces a formation attack
• "Condition Red Condition Red": Many enemy ships arrive at once – status changes to red
• "Game Over": Well - that's probably self-explanatory

However, the samples are sometimes quite difficult to understand, e.g. the two "f" are missing in "Blast off", and "Condition Red" you can not understand at all. But the author is innocent because the samples come 1: 1 from the Namco machine. Probably at that time Japaneese spoke the English words?!?

At the end of the game you can still enter in a highscore list. And if you press the SELECT button in the title screen, the score is displayed in the form of a QR code, which you can use to enter the highscore list in the Highscore Cafe using a suitable QR code scanner. Unfortunately, this requires registration on a Polish website.

Are you able to beat the score?

We can pause and continue the game with the START button (!). However, this does not work flawlessly, probably because the author forgot to include a key debunk. To cancel a game, we can press the OPTION button (!) while the game is paused.

Here is the scoring:

Asteroid = 10
Mine = 20
Ship = 50
Spy ship = 200/300/400
Formation leader = 100
Whole formation = 800 (only if all 5 ships destroyed)
Fortress Cannon = 200 (except last cannon)
Space fortress = 1500

Finally, some tips for all those who want to register with the highest possible score in the Highscore Cafe:

• since space mine explosions are larger than the mines itselves, you should keep some distance while shooting at them
• in order to avoid the shots of a space fortress better, it is advisable to first destroy all asteroids and space mines in the vicinity, before you take the fortress itself intensively targeted
• you should also be able to hit fortresses at an angle to destroy them faster.
• since your own spaceship is quite slow, you should avoid long stretches and take advantage of the fact that the edges of the purple card are connected.
• it is not worthwhile to hit fortress cores, as there are no more points and you miss 200 points per fortress cannon – and from level 8, that's very risky because of the missiles shot by the core
• it isn't worth to destroy rockets as well because you do not get enough points for it
• whole formations pay off – for the 800 points you should persistently pursue the last missing formation ship – however, it costs time, so you risk "Condition Red"
• if a spy ship arrives, you can let it pass first, as it always comes back – but then you should hit it, otherwise it reveals our position to the opposing headquarters, which calls "Condition Red" after a short time – then so many enemy ships are attacking at the same time, that it is only a matter of time until you lose a life – in addition, there are not to be despised 200-400 points for spy ships
• if you take too long for a level, "Condition Red" always comes – therefore, one should hurry (in later levels) to destroy the fortresses – slowing down to scoop points does not work
• "Condition Red" sometimes comes several times – then you can continue to play fairly well after the first time – after the second time it gets very difficult

Conclusion:

Bosconian has become a fantastic game, probably even better than the original. The difficulty is just right: At the beginning it is still quite easy, but from level 8 you can not continue without practice. Thanks to the 32 levels with ever new fortress positions, there is always something new to see, the better you play. And who wants to finish the easy levels quickly, can simply shoot down the fortress cores. Besides the version with sound samples, which requires 128 KB, there is one without samples, which runs with 64 KB. And both are available in PAL and NTSC versions. So it's about time to award top scores again.

Sound: 9.5
Graphics: 9.5
Fun: 9.8

Overall: 9.7