Reviews

You're on a rescue mission to save three astronauts on an alien planet. There are several different sections although not too much variety in the gameplay as they all involve some direction finding, occasionally mixed up with a bit of shooting alien predators or avoiding objects.

There's a mishmash of graphical effects used to create 3D effects. In some sections they work quite well, but in others they seem a bit superfluous to the gameplay. For instance, whilst descending into the atmosphere you focus your attention to keep a dot centred in a circle whilst largely ignoring the rest of the display.

All in all, It's a bit of an odd game. There's nothing else that looks or plays quite like it, yet it lacks any special spark to the gameplay that makes it stand out.

It's a sci fi game in which you have to land in some alien planet, run through some alien landscape, kill some alien alien, e save some human astronauts which were kidnapped or something. Great view from space, it makes me think that we're so small and makes me wonder about creation and let's land that I have some work to do. The landing was a mysterious thing, until ZX1 and some reviews enlightened me about it and it turned out it was less hard than it seemed. You fly over the oh so marvellous alien landscape, but you can't look at it, because you're too busy staring at a stupid pixel in a cyan circle on the left side of the screen. You must try to keep it at the centre of it until you score 8.0 points. Then you land, you BRAKE, hop out of the spacecraft. Now you're running [at walking speed] through the oh so unearthly alien landscape, following a beep, shooting alien hawks or something. I like the graphics. It gives me a sci fi movie feel of alien horizons, alien grounds, alien rocks. It's all so purple. And then there are other sections. The game was saved by the... save option, at the time, or it would have been too frustrating and boring. And now it's still okaysh. 3/5.

In video games alien worlds often comply to some preconceptions. They rarely alienate or disquiet the player.
Braxx Bluff is an attempt to do just that with its weird colours, psychedelic 3D, outlandish honks, buzzes, pips and squeaks, stocato welcome tune, even the name, Braxx Bluff.
The bravery of this game project is exceptional and without convention, at least until the last stage which borrows abit from Micromega's success with Deathchase.
Stage 2 is my favourite as you stagger slowly forward on foot in search of your buggy, whilst intermittently keeping your gunsights on the swooping Krittas.
Sadly the gameplay is not as good as the concept however, leaving Braxx Bluff in just-above-average territory. I make its a 4 not a 3 to acknowledge the coders success in making an alien landscape that doesn't look like moon craters and alien enemies who are not green and equipped with heads and legs.

1984 Micromega (UK)
by Tony Poulter and C.B. Fred

A Sci-fi rescue mission ir order to save three astronauts stranded on an alien planet. The game is comprised of several different sections, beginning with the landing which requires more skill than the rest of the game which turns more into a shoot 'em-up then anything, and then moving thru a variety of landscapes, which include deserts, cities and an alien sea. The landscapes all look alike, they aren't that interesting and are occasionally mixed with a bit of alien shooting, to provide a bit of action. Most of the time the game is viewed from the player perspective inside the spaceship, which makes the game a bit boring to me.


All in all, it's a average game, original for 1984, but not particularly engaging.