Gorf

The Good
Gorf is a strange game. There are four levels in the game, and the aim of each level is to shoot all the invaders on screen to go to the next level. You may think that it is another one of those shooting games that you used to play at the arcades in the early eighties, in which each level looks exactly the same as the previous one, and the gameplay never changes. This in not the case with Gorf, as the gameplay differs between the levels.

You see, in the first level titled "Astro Battles", you control a ship that must attack four rows of invaders that shoot back at you. This is similar to Space Invaders, but you are protected by a defensive shield that will block an invader's shot, but that part of the shield is destroyed once hit. Occasionally, A spaceship will make its way toward the middle of the screen, and you receive extra points for shooting at it. The second level, "Laser Attack", is similar to Galaxian where the enemy ships are in groups of three, and will kamikaze attack. One of the enemy ships will emit a deadly laser beam. In "Space Warp", you must shoot the ships that will appear at the center of the screen, circle out, fire some shots at you, and make you explode if you get in their way. Finally , in "Flag ship". you must destroy pieces of a huge ship that goes back and forth, avoiding its shots.

Once you have completed all four levels, you start the game again, this time with your rank being increased, as well as the difficulty. Three of the ranks are "Space Cadet", "Space Captain", and "Space Colonel". I haven't get much further in the game, so I can't tell you what other ranks that they are, but there might also be a "Space Corporal" as well.

Gorf was released for consoles only such as the Atari 2600 and the Atari 5200, but it was also released for one home computer only - Commodore 64. The game remains faithful to the coin-op version. Not only does it have the same gameplay and detailed graphics, but it also has the same sounds. i like shooting games like this one. It's just unfortunately for me that I didn't see this one in the arcades.

The Bad
I think that there is a bug in the C64 version of the game. You can't shoot two bullets. When you attempt to do this, the bullet that you last fired disappears without a trace to make way for your current bullet.

The Bottom Line
Four levels to be excited about. Complete all these levels and the game increases in difficulty and speed. See how many ranks you pass without losing all of your lives.

Rating: ***