SkyRoads (a polished-up remake of the company’s previous obscure game, Kosmonaut), is a simple racing game that was released back in 1993 for DOS by Bluemoon. In this game, you take control of a futuristic ship that is used for racing (said loosely, since there is no racing in this game and I assume that is what it is used for). The objective of the game is simple, successfully finish a series of tracks without crashing your Skycar (a term I will now use for this review since I have no idea what to call it) on a part of the track or falling off the track to be forever lost in the emptiness of space. Yeah, the tracks are randomly floating in space.
The controls for the game are simple, the left arrow makes you go left, the right arrow key makes you turn right. The up arrow keep speeds you up and the down arrow key slows you down until you stop. The spacebar makes your Skycar jump. The controls make the barrier for entry low so people who aren’t experienced at games and people who just want some simple fun can play. The graphics for the game are colourful, keeping the detail of the tracks simple with only basic colours. The backgrounds that are displayed behind the tracks are detailed, giving the player a good idea where the current track is located.
You also don’t need to complete a level to move on to the next one, it’s just a list of levels for you to choose from. Every track is made up of coloured blocks and flat surfaces or platforms and are simple in design. The game is not without challenge, and quickly jumping from platform to platform is just the beginning. The tracks often form patterns, holes you can fall through, tubes you can drive through that sometimes lead to dead ends and sometimes require jumping over elevated blocks.
Also, depending on the colour of a certain platform or block, certain things will happen to your Skycar. For Example, dark green slows you down, light green speeds you up, blue refills your oxygen and fuel and Dark Grey won’t let you steer left or right. This makes the game more difficult in later levels, since not only do you have to be constantly be changing speeds and jumping from platform to platform, you have to watch out for certain platforms that can speed you up or won’t let you steer, often causing you to crash.
The game also uses different levels of gravity in races, making jumping from platform to platform more difficult since you don’t know if you can make the jump or completely miss it. A strange but interesting addition to the game are the Oxygen and Fuel levels. If you spent too long on a track (and I see that rarely happening) you run out of air. Same with the Fuel except it gets used up if spend too much time jumping from platform to platform. This feature doesn’t really affect the game so much since you’ve either finished the track or have crashed before both of them have been used up.
After winning each race, you are awarded with a small gold medal next to the race you just won. It only has a limited amount of space for a certain number of medals, but it’s something to show for completing the harder levels. Unfortunately, a fresh install means a fresh start. Think of them as achievements before the Xbox 360 achievements system, except not. Overall, this is a fun arcade style racing game that is simple enough to jump into but has enough challenge in the later levels as is addictive enough to keep people coming back at least once or twice.
NOTE: This is a freeware title, so you can download it now from Bluemoon’s website for free. However, it takes a trick or two to start playing and requires DOSBOX. Go to the DOSBOX website, download it and read and follow the instructions on the website and in the manual. If you need help, find someone good with computers.
http://www.bluemoon.ee/history/skyroads/ - SkyRoads, for free!
http://www.dosbox.com/ - DOSBOX, to run the damn thing.
The Good:
+Easy to learn, hard to master.
+Bright and colourful with detailed backgrounds.
The Bad:
-Later levels can get a bit too frustrating