Game 16: GravAttack (1987)

That title screen is a bit psychedelic, isn't it? The game stats at the bottom are actually a result of me playing this on an emulated PAL Amiga. I only learned afterward the game only works glitch-free on NTSC Amigas.

United States
Released 1987 as Shareware
Genre: Arcade
Developer: Scott Hjalmer Peterson
Date Started: 06 Jan 2025
Date Ended: 06 Jan 2025
Total Hours: 1
Difficulty: 5/5
Final Rating: 21

Today, I’ll give GravAttack a short review. This is a gravity-based action game that is very obviously inspired by classic arcade games like Gravitar and Thrust. You control a ship that can rotate and thrust in the direction it is facing, and you must navigate through a series of increasingly difficult levels while avoiding obstacles, keeping an eye on your declining fuel, and collecting items, in the case of GravAttack, these are, rather weirdly, small keys hovering over spots around the level, often very close to the deadly walls or other hazards. In terms of Programming: it seems a decent effort, though I noticed some slow down if too much stuff is happening on screen at once; it gets a 4/10 here. The Controls are a bit tricky to get used to as you have to use the x and y keys for rotating and the . and / keys for thrusting and Shooting, and Space for the shield, instead of just using the joystick. But I get that was an effort to make this similar to the controls of the classic arcade machines. It gets a bit easier once you get used to it. On a funny side node, you bounce off the sky if you try to move off-screen, which needs a bit of getting used to. Overall it gets a 4/10. GravAttack has a slight psychedelic Vibe to it, which is more than nothing, 2/10. Graphics are decent and almost a bit too colorful at times (leading to the psychedelic vibe), 4/10. There is no Story to speak of, so it gets a 0/10. In terms of Audio there is only basic stuff going on: Your typical explosion and shot samples, as well as a bouncing sound for the keys or hitting the upper screen limit, which gives the game a somewhat comic feel: 2/10. I had a bit of Fun with GravAttack, but I’m just too bad at it to get very far. I think this was a nice challenge back when there wasn’t that much else around: 5/10.

Final Rating: 21

Overall:
GravAttack feels like a decent attempt at recreating a gravity-based arcade game. It has its charms, like a certain psychedelic vibe, but also a few flaws like the somewhat clunky controls, and, well, it’s really hard.

Scott Peterson, who wrote GravAttack in 1987 “instead of getting a summer job”, moved on to work on the commercial Dr. Plummet's House of Flux which looks like a more polished version of GravAttack released by MicroIllusions, with a different (and even more psychedelic) art style apart from the actual game. According to an archived Usenet post from 1990, this didn’t work out too well, leaving the game being “unplayable”. Tragically, also according to the same post, Scott Peterson took his own life in 1988.