In deciding my methodology for reviewing these games I have decided that I will only review the games that I played extensively and have some semblance of a story. So that’ll exclude things like solitaire, mahjong, free-cell, minesweeper and etc. Also I’m going to review them in chronological order by release date. Since I am old and my recollection is a little fuzzy, it’s hard to know when I played a game. This will be better, albeit slightly out of order.
But, at any rate, let’s begin!
Rather than emulating this classic I decided instead to watch through a long play on YouTube. I would like to play this again, but will need to get myself set up with some means by which to play it and others like it. Anywho, this game is simple enough that the long play freshens my memory.
I completely forgot about the whole ‘world map’ view that is comprised of your four dots versus their five dots. These menacing dots are the enemy flotilla that you will wind up fighting whether you take the creepy cave route or not if I remember correctly. In fact I’m not positive what advantage you get by diverting through the cave. If I wind up actually playing this through again I will test this out and report back.
Speaking of the creepy cave(s). This had also slipped out of my memory but I find it comical, I guess I am assuming they are caves but could be a series of round canals. Canals filled with wall mounted torpedo launchers that seem to not be scared of firing in the general direction of the other turrets. Maybe all the turret guys hate each other? It’s comical the boat sounds like someone tied a playing card to a bicycle fork so that it flaps between the spokes.
After leaving the scary cave canals. You’re back on the world map, but now on the other side of the peninsula. Now all that stands between you and that beach is the inevitable sea battle. The first phase here is an attack by a series of planes leaving the carrier of the opposition. Tip, the red plane flying from one side of the screen to the other is worth 2000 points to all you points hunting folks. I would venture that I played this part of the game most often, avoiding the creepy torpedoes was fairly easy. The tank part in the fourth phase here was the most complicated for me – for whatever reason. In my defense I was likely far less than 10 when I played this game. It came out when I was 1.
Back on track here, after a bit of pew pew taking out the enemy aircraft you wind up trying to keep those dirty enemies from escaping! This phase of the game employs some angle/power fighting and is sort of like battleship only instead of choosing from a grid you simply lob a salvo in the appropriate direction. Fun times here, I particularly enjoy the sound of the projectile falling back towards the earth. Peeewwwwwww Schproookle.
As an aside, I recall this being much slower as a kid, I’m wondering if the provider of the specific video I watched simply emulated the game. Anywho. After nuking the entire enemy navy, it’s time to roll to shore. The Beach Head, if you will… That’s a lot of tanks. This portion of the game reminded me of another game I used to play called Zaxxon. A quick google check tells me this came out after Zaxxon so I will review that next! Man, I’m out of order already and I’m only now 7/8ths the way through my first review!
I could breeze through the earlier parts of the game but for whatever reason I had issues navigating this tank maze and final boss battle. I did make it through it and beat the boss on one occasion.
The turret topped ant hill cracks me up. And I assume that the folks inside are running around turning the lights on and off and to win you have to shoot them every time they’re in a room turning on the light. At any rate, once you finally beat this boss the game is over and you’ve won. I believe the point is that you would start again and play through it once more. I assume that you’re going for score here and perhaps it is more difficult the next go-round but I never made it that far.
All of my techie mentors (My father, uncle, and older brother) had played and beaten the game so it was sort of a right of passage. The four of us rarely shared other gaming interests later on in life so it is likely one of the games that most directly connects us. I also played this game with my younger sister, though that would have been much later in the early 90s. She enjoyed shooting at the planes and a good time was had by all.
That’s one of the things I like most about this journey I am on. I can reflect on where I was at in life when playing some of these games. Ponder on the lessons learned (or not) and the growth that happened (or not).
Beach Head was a great game combining several genres of game-play in a time where you were lucky to get one. You were also lucky if you were able to complete the game at all, some of the pre-2000s games were needlessly impossible (I’m looking at you Aladdin and Lion King…). There was no real story to speak of, of which I am aware. I don’t even know that you know for whom you are fighting or against whom you struggle. I know it’s set in WWII pacific so you could make some assumptions.
All in all, this was a solid jaunt down memory lane. Next time I’ll be reviewing Zaxxon, as I believe this is both the oldest game I played when I was young and also actually the first game chronologically. I guess that explains why it slipped my memory. This will likely happen a lot.
Till then, take care of yourself, thanks for reading!
-NG
