Llamatron: 2112

The Good
I've heard quite a bit about this game from various sources. I've been told that it's a "genuine" shoot'em'up, arguably the most difficult shmup known to man. Beeing the shmup-affictionado that I am, I looked for the game and finally found it in some obscure abandonware site a couple of months ago and decided to give it a go.

In essense, Llamatron doesn't have anything geniuely good OR geniunely bad. It is an astoundly mediocre game, with decent graphics and sound (1992 mind you), pretty easy controls etc. The only really cool thing about this game is, well, llamas :-)

The Bad
With all the talk about how difficult this game is, I can't help but be confused. I've played it for about thirty minutes and must've passed at least that many levels. In all honesty I didn't give the game as much time as I would have given a more visually appealing game (say, Raptor), but I've played it long enough to get a feel for the game and, well, it's absolutely mediocre.

The difficulty level isn't high at all. Now I think of myself as a pretty good shmup player, but not up to the levels of those legendary people I keep hearing of who managed to defeat R-Type (as an aside, I never managed to do so and in fact find R-Type to be the single most difficult and frustrating shmup I've ever played, at least so on the Amiga) -- Llamatron is just plain EASY. I mean, it's not Raiden-easy, but it's not even as hard as the afforementioned Raptor.

I just don't see what the hype is all about; the difficultly level is low and there's nothing about the keep to make me come back to it. It's just so stunnigly mediocre!

The Bottom Line
Save your time and go play a proper shmup. If you have any sense you'll go download Mame32 and play 1941 or something cool like that instead.

The Good
This game has no plot! (Or if there is, I'm blissfully oblivious to it.) Jeff Minter really knows what computer games are all about - when you're shooting all over the shop and gathering furry animals, no story could possibly justify the action. The VGA graphics and digitized sound effects are adequate for a fast-paced little (compared to other games of the same vintage) and the objects being blown to smithereens on the screen are original to say the least. The controls are straightforward enough to put all players on the same level.

The Bad
It's difficult. It reminds me of the fact that I'm lousy at arcade games, and brings back memories of really frustrating C=64 games. If you've grown up on Mortal Kombat, or something silly like that, you might have the reflexes, but probably not the sense of history to appreciate this game.

The Bottom Line
Its pretty basic SEU action on one-screen playfields, but the action has enough variation and the playability is good enough to keep you going if you like this sort of game. This is the kind of game that made the CBM 64 the most popular microcomputer in the world, and it still isn't a bad game. Bear in mind, though, that this is a game in its most quintessential form - this is not to say that the presentation is bad, but that it is a game, not a way of life (as some "games" claim to be these days). If you like to play computer games with fast-paced action and rewarding gameplay, try it! If you like to play "computer games" with Surround Sound and/or T&L, grow up and then try it.