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Missile Command is one of those memorable games from the arcade, it required skill and strategic planning, and it is a game I play almost every single day in an arcade form. Super Missile Command is a game you may have heard of, but probably haven't; being that it was a port to a system that quickly became defunct. As with most ports, if they aren't done by the right people they seem to miss the mark most of the time. This game does justify having Super added to the title, being that they did make more textured and interesting levels, and have even added power ups, which you can purchase with the points you have earned. Overall, the additions they made to this port are great, and wonderful, but what they have taken from the game is worse.

No longer do you get that track ball or the three buttons to fire separate missile bases. Now you have only two buttons, one to fire missiles, and one for power ups. To be fair, this limitation is due in full to the lack of buttons provided by the lynx hardware, not the game. Looking at it that way, it probably is best not to have been ported at all, at least on a portable with less then the three buttons. It is those three buttons that make Missile Command, well... Missile Command. You pretty much just press one button to fire missiles from whatever base is closest, making it more of a spectator game, then something interactive. When using a power up, it is hard to place it in time if the game decided to use the other missiles first.

The power ups in the game include shields, dual missiles, cluster missiles, remote detonation devices, and above all, my favorite; Armageddon. There are plenty more power ups to list, all which are very useful, but not as much as they could or should be. Yet another draw back of the game is the lack of in-game sound. The title sequence music is nice, and I wouldn't have minded if that was carried over to the actual game play.

The game is great on its own, but the drawbacks of the Lynx make this game drop interest after only five or ten minutes of play. This game would probably be a great port on one of the newer portable systems, and could make for an interesting play on the DS touch screen. In the end, this is not the place to go to recreate the nostalgia of the arcade.

Some may remember this Lynx card as being one of the early "buy one get one free" collections (the other game being Super Missile Command which was reviewed last week). These games are so different in means of scoring and game play that I have decided to review them separately. That being said let me start off by telling you that this game is WAY too easy, something that I have discovered with most the Lynx games I have reviewed thus far. Asteroids is one of those classic arcade games that sat next to Centipede and Defender. You were put in control of a ship in which your mission was to destroy all the passing asteroids. But with most things, nothing can be arcade perfect. In Super Asteroids all you have to do is hit your thrusters slightly, and start firing while spinning around, some times spinning in the opposite direction. Using this strategy, you can pretty much hit any and all asteroids coming your way and more... eliminating the intensity of the arcade original.

In the first few levels of the game, it starts you off with one asteroid to destroy, which rarely splits into more then two pieces at this stage. Once all remnants of the asteroid are destroyed, the screen will fade and go to the next section, until you progress to the next level. Due to the simplicity of this game, I doubt most people will want to play far enough to where it actually becomes challenging. One thing that takes away from the challenge is the addition of a automatic shield which will deplete when you are hit by asteroids - even at the fourth stage in the fourth segment you can use the same strategy with no problem. To tell the truth, I didn't even realize there were thrusters until I HAD to use them, meaning that I stayed in the middle of the level most of the time just shooting in circles.

What really makes this game different then any Asteroids game you've played before are the long range weapons you use ... oh, and the very small screen. This makes it possible to shoot from one side of the screen to the other, or have the bullet just loop around the map (Pac-Man style) and hit whatever is there. At times I thought I got two asteroids due to the fact that the asteroid does not pass to the other side immediately, rather it lags and appears at the top and bottom, or where ever it may be, at the same time.

Sound is one thing this game and Super Missile Command lack. The intro has a nice touch to it, but one thing missing from the arcade classic is the heartbeat sound. Or any sound for that matter ... there are some firing effects, but that is the most you will get out of this game, heck, its not even the original sound effects. Speaking of effects, the effects of the power-ups are pretty non-existent, you really have to look for what happened, to even notice what it changed. The detail has of course been updated from the arcade classic, and the space ships look wonderful. Sadly though, there is not enough to this game to justify owning it; besides Super Missile Command (which is a superior game).