Aside from the difficulty level, the game's controls can give you a little
trouble as well. It's easy to find your man deciding to run up a ladder that you
intended to only run passed as the angle detection is really touchy. If you've
ever played a version of Pac-Man in which your Pac-man seems to take every turn
on his own volition, then you know what I mean. It's just the opposite with the
blaster controls. There is very little tolerance for being a smidge to the right
or left of where you're supposed to stand to blast a block, and if you're out of
position nothing happens. If you're not in eminent danger of being captured by a
beast, then it's just an inconvenience … unless you're dropping through a couple
of layers of destructible blocks and a block reforms and traps or squishes you
before you can eliminate the next block down. When you have a monster in pursuit
and are set to blast a hole for it to drop into and find you're not quite
aligned correctly to blast that block … well, that's more than inconvenient.
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In addition to the main mode, there's a puzzle mode that dispenses with the
monsters and leaves you with the simple task of collecting all of the gold in a
level. This is not as easy at it sounds, as the fifty puzzles in the game become
progressively trickier the farther along you go. Many puzzles have a single
solution, and if you take the wrong path you'll find yourself trapped or forced
to start the puzzle over again. I preferred this mode over the main mode – the
game's frustrating aspects were softened a bit when the need to keep moving and
be extremely precise were removed from the equation.
Lode Runner also supports co-op play for both modes, but the levels
themselves are different in co-op, and are designed with cooperation in mind.
You'll need to help each reach different areas in the level by blasting blocks
for each other, giving a boost when needed, and the like. The co-op modes can be
more enjoyable than the single player modes when playing with someone you know.
There's also a competitive multiplayer mode in which players try to be the one
who survives the longest, with players becoming monsters when they die so that
they can join in the chase when eliminated instead of watching from the
sidelines. This mode is only mildly entertaining as Lode Runner just isn't
designed to be an action game – you'll play it a couple of times and then move
on.
In the end, Lode Runner is the kind of game that will appeal primarily to
those with fond memories of the original, although puzzle fans may find the
puzzle mode appealing. Overall, though, gameplay has just advanced too far in
the past thirty years. Some simple, twitch-based arcade classics can weather the
test of time reasonably well, but overall Lode Runner just doesn't hold up that
well.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
68%.
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