Activision Spider Fighter -Atari 2600
Retro Gaming Review

Title:	Spider Fighter
Manufacturer:	Activision
Platform:	Atari 2600
Release Date:	1982
Part #:	AX-021
Rating:	4 out of 5
ESRB Rating:	N/A

Activision Spider Fighter Screenshot:

Spider Fighter comes at you with manic speed, crisp graphics and great play. It's damn fun! Your cannon (aka: mobile bug blaster) fires poison pellets at spiders in an attempt to save your fruit (oranges, bananas, grapes and strawberries). However, once you see the enemy's pattern the difficulty drifts away a bit. But with any cool 8-bit game that becomes too easy - just add beer.

I got hooked on Spider Fighter from the speed alone. The cannon at the bottom of the screen gives a "Space Invaders" feel and the colorful graphics are very "Demon Attack" like, but the speed of game play is unlike most games. Its a single-player game, but both difficulty switches help increase the challenge. The left swaps between regular and expert game play and the right switch controls straight versus guided pellets.

The Master Nest will readily take away your orchard's wares and release Spy Pods to further piss you off. They inform the Nest to release more insects, so you'll want to blow these guys away fast. Green Widows help protect the Nest while Stingers will do their best to destroy you. If you destroy a Master Nest, all Hell breaks loose and all of the killer insects will descend on you - don't spill that beer.

After playing so many shooter-style games, its hard to look at this game as a farming scenario even though the objective is to keep insects from invading your orchard. It seems a space-battle theme is lurking somewhere in the background :)

Difficulty Switch Settings for Spider Fighter

The left Difficulty Switch changed from Easy to Expert play, effecting fire power, speed and point alues of the various insects. The right Difficulty Switch alternates from straight pellets and guided pellets. Fire away, Master Exterminator!

Each wave begins with 3 fruits and 4 Master Nests. Four waves attack your oranges, strawberries and grapes until unlimited waves go after your bananas. You start with four cannons - I mean Bug Blasters (not a space battle) and get a new one each time you save all your fruit from the wave of insects. Your score increases from 30 to 150 points depending on what type of enemy you exterminate.

A Bug Glossary is included in the manual for all you budding Entomologists. The Master Nest is at the top echelon of the bug hierarchy and can release Spy Pods who determine how many insects should be released on your charmingly unsuspecting orchard. Green Widows help protect he Master Nest while Stingers are much more dangerous and are determined to destroy your Bug Blaster.

You may master it quickly, but the speed of this game makes it a favorite. And if you don't play it, how can you earn your Activision Spider fighter patch with a screenshot of 40,000 points?

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