Atari Lynx Robo-Squash

Written and Published by Atari Corp.
Reviewed by John Hayward
ComLynx? Yes 2 units

I did not get a box or instructions with this game, and I think it has been interesting for me to work this one out by myself. I got this cart after swapping a spare copy of Chip's Challenge with another Lynx user in my local trading magazine.

Robo-Squash is a cross between Breakout and Tennis, and is played head on with another player or against the computer. You are in a room behind a pattern of bricks and you use your paddle to bounce a ball to knock out the bricks, failure to not catch the ball means it turns into a tomato which result in a 'splat' on the screen which obscures your view making further progress more difficult. Three splats means you lose the game. When all the blocks have been destroyed, a spider will rush round the screen, you will then have to hit it with your ball to win that game.

Before the game starts you have sixteen planets on the screen. Each of those you and your opponent will try and win, getting four in a row gives extra score. The winner is the one with the most planets captured after all 16 have been played. There are 4 different speed settings to the game.

There a small number of bricks with special functions. These include:

• Fire block. These speed up the ball.
• Dragon block. This turns your bat into a laser cannon to blast blocks out using the A button.
• Sticky bat block. This means you can hold the ball each time you catch it. This means re-launching it to make knocking out the last few blocks easy.
• Preview block. This shows a small circle advising you where to place your bat to catch the next block.

Tips:

• Be careful when you are using the laser cannon that you don't neglect the ball coming back to you.
• Try and get 4 planets in a row for extra score.
• When the ball sticks to your bat, you can move the bat where you want to destroy those awkward to get it blocks.

Overall I like Robo-Squash, its the kind of a game you can play often without it getting tiring, it's not sophisticated by any means, the raw gameplay gives the feel of an 1980s game with its unusually simple design and challenging gameplay means it's a winner in my books. I wonder if it is a conversion of an arcade title, as it would certainly make a good arcade title to play in your local arcade emporium or at the chip shop.

Overall: 87%

Good points:

• Unique idea
• Special bricks are a nice idea
• Extremely addictive
• Nice end sequence when you have finished a round of sixteen games.
• Graphics/presentation are nice
• Supports 2 player ComLynx

Bad points

• Game difficulty is quite tricky, quick reactions are needed
• Lynx's control pad is not the ideal way to move the bat (mouse would be ideal for this)
• A splat in the middle of the screen means you are ruined
• Not that much variation in game play
• May not be everyone's cup of tea

From Maggie 25