Power Factor

Power Factor is an action-platformer starring the single campily-named hero, Redd Ace, fighting alien creatures known as the Ceegarians from the Ceeg dimension. Of course, aliens being played out, the Ceegarians are actually referred to as "transdimensional intruders," and the Ceegarian creatures the player faces off against are referred to as evil invading "Sinlendo Techmods."

The primary goal of the game is to work through stages and bosses essentially to build a bomb to destroy the Ceegarians. Pertaining to the bomb, there are six components. The entire game takes place within, as the box refers to it, "our dimension's reactor." As such, the environments of the game are aimed to look like the inside of a machine. To further convolute the storyline, the instruction manual actually refers to the game itself as a Virtual Reality simulation the player is experiencing in the future, based on the exploits of Redd Ace, and you’re meandering through this simulator on the “famous Atarian Leisure Moon.”

Stages are fairly small, but designed like a maze à la Metroid. However, unlike Metroid, completed areas cannot be revisited. Each stage ends with a boss battle showcasing enemy characters that are often two screens high.

Redd Ace is armed with a multi-use weapon known as the "Tmat MOW." Tmat MOW is intended to be short for “TRANSMAT Multi-Ordinance Weapon.” Four different weapons may be acquired and used for both the A and B buttons, with eight total weapons in the game, and one gun as a standard. Other weapons include lasers, a flame thrower, missiles, bombs, and the like. Weapons must be picked up through playing the stages and collecting various weapon icons. Once the ammunition is used, the weapon is gone and must be recollected. As such, weapon pick-ups must be used sparingly, especially since most contain very small numbers of ammunition, often as low as two shots. Choosing weapons is awkwardly assigned to the Directional-pad, which is also where character movement is assigned. Tapping the D-pad allows the player to select different weapons, while holding it down moves Redd.

Controlling Redd Ace is somewhat different from a typical platformer of the era. There is no jump button, as both the A and B buttons have weapons assigned to them. Instead, our hero is also armed with a levitation pack on his back, which allows flight. Tapping "up" on the D-Pad allows Redd to jump, while holding "up" activates the levitator and allows Redd to fly. Aside from a health bar, there is also a fuel bar showing that flight isn't a luxury to be wasted. When crouching, Redd automatically aims upwards at a 45-degree angle, rather than straight ahead.

Pressing the "Option 2" button allows the player to see a menu with information about the bomb pieces the player is collecting, as well as details on the various weapons. If the player is standing in front of a computer monitor when Option 2 is pressed, the menu shows a map of the current area, and information on enemy characters.

The player starts with three lives, and there are no continues. There are, however, three difficulty modes--Easy, Normal, and Hard—which may be selected prior to gameplay.