Marine Wars is a pretty good shooting game with
the added novelty of perspective. As a battleship you
will face four waves of enemies: warships during the day
then at night, and fighter planes during the day then
at night. During the warship waves you will need to clear
all the enemies, but during the fighter waves you'll simply
need to survive the attacks.
The graphics are quite nice with a island on the horizon,
and a good use of perspective showing the different warships.
The explosions (especially at night) are a nice effect,
and during wave two the last row of ships can only be
seen during an explosion, which is a nice touch. Sound
is minimal with a musical jingle at the start of each
wave, and with shooting and explosion sound effects.
Control is novel, but lacks the dead on control that makes
a great 2600 game. Your ship is slow, but as you move
left or right it changes the angle of your shots requiring
some strategy to hit your targets. Regardless of your
skill level in the game you will get hit, but your battleship
can take several hits before sinking. You'll notice your
ship getting lower and lower in the water as it becomes
more damaged. Also, enemy torpedoes and bombs can be hit
with a skillful shot.
Once you've cleared the four waves, they repeat with added
difficulty. The slow (realistic?) control and lack of
new challenges keep Marine Wars from being one
of the great 2600 games, but the novelty of the game makes
it a cart you'll want to pull out and play on occasion.
2008 ben langberg, all rights reserved.