Blitz

Here you pilot a byplane over a city landscape made up of sky scrappers.  For some reason this is the only place to land, and presumably it’s all deserted because your objective is flatten the city so you can safely land, wave and then fly off to do the same to another city.

A very simple concept for the game, even simpler controls - the spacebar to drop bombs and that’s it.  It’s so easy to play that even my Nan could play it.  Yes, very easy to play but like every game that has a just one more go appeal it is very difficult to master.

First off you have to quickly assess the landscape as each time you play the height of each building is randomly generated.  You get a brief moment to watch the city being built to do this.  Then you have plan which buildings you are going to target first.  Dropping a bomb will knock away several stories upon impact and you can’t drop another bomb until this is finished.  Your best bet is to go for the taller buildings, not only because with each fly by you get lower but if your bomb falls on a low building or empty space you have to wait longer before you can drop another bomb.  You’ve also got to try to not leave two similarly high buildings close to each other as it will be impossible to flatten them both should you need to in one pass.  Lastly you’ll have best luck if you can drop two bombs on one pass to do maximum damage. 

Luck is certainly a factor and the city you are given at the start of the game can sometimes be impossible while most of the time nearly impossible to clear.  But despite this, each time you fail you just have to have another go.  Next time you’ll do better.  Next time you won’t mis-time that bomb.  Next time you’ll get a better city.  Next time you’ll win.  Sometimes you will and when you do it feels like a great achievement.

Due to Blitz’s simplicity, it has been copied time and time again.  I don’t know if Vic-20 Blitz was the first of it’s type or if it was a copy of a previous game, but it was the first I’d seen and one game I’ve never forgotten.

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3 Responses to “Blitz”

1. Paxius says:

   Thursday 21st January 2010 at 9:24 pm

   Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   :’(

   Reply
2. Chris says:

   Monday 8th March 2010 at 1:22 pm

   Brilliant game. Think this came free with my VIC-20 starter pack on a tape with 3 other games. It might look dated but back then I spent countless hours playing it its that addictive.
   Thanks for putting this on the web

   Reply
3. ricky says:

   Sunday 2nd May 2010 at 3:52 am

   my whole family bonded over this… we never did over anything else in 30 years.

   Reply