80’s arcade games-Sinistar.

1982

You command this little ship and you have to shoot planetoids to mine crystals and make Sinibombs. Enemy ships try to nab the crystals before you and other fighter ships try to shoot you. At the start of the game the title enemy has not been completed, but rather he is being built piece by piece while you try and collect as many crystals as you can. So the more crystals you grab means the more Sinibombs you’ll have which means the more shots you’ll have. Have at what? Well, when Sinistar is completed he comes after you at full force yowling, howling and trying to destroy. You have to release Sinibombs and knock him apart one piece at a time. If you do then you move on to a different level with less planetoids and try to do it again. If you have played this game then you likely quote Sinistar frequently as his “Beware I live” and “Run, Coward” are quite memorable. The game is very challenging because of how awkward it is to get the crystals and then to fight Sinistar who is going several times faster than you can go. It’s kind of like Asteroids crossed with Defender only a mad bull of a spaceship trying to run you down. The graphics are decent for the time, but the speed and the villain is what really makes this game so fantastic. It was on a Super Ninendo collection of  Williams games that I played very often in the 90’s. Now it’s also on an Xbox collection that I play when I can. A great game for sure.