"Now you die, human!"

With the overwhelming success of Atari’s Asteroids, it was inevitable that a sequel would arrive. And the game manufacturer pulled out all the stops for their follow-up, called Blasteroids.

Released in 1987, eight years after Asteroids hit the arcades, Blasteroids had a familiar look to it on the surface. One or two players tried to keep safe from being pelted by numerous space rocks and the occasional UFO. This time around, however, they also had a new “boss asteroid” to contend with, Mukor the Slime Monster.

At the game’s start, a player was given a choice of four warp fields, each of varying difficulty, to choose from. They made their choice and headed into the dark recesses of space, filled with menacing asteroids bent on destroying their ship. The galaxy needed to be cleared one sector at a time to achieve success. This time around, however, the ship had a limited fuel supply and the only way around that was to blast the special red asteroids, which contained a replenishment of the needed commodity. There were also new, more menacing rocks, called “popcorn asteroids” which increased in size each time they were shot. Eventually, they settled into one place on the screen and became a permanent obstacle.

Enemy UFO’s presented their own new challenges and surprises. By destroying them, players could now such valuable items as temporary invincibility shields, advanced weaponry and larger fuel tanks. Some even transformed your own ship into a more mighty variation. “The Warrior” was the largest ship possible. And while it could take more damage than a regular ship, it also moved very slowly. “The Fighter” wasn’t quite as large and had effective mid-range guns, as well as moderate protection from its shields. And finally, “The Speeder” was the smallest class of ship. Its guns had a very short range and its shields were weak, but it was darn speedy. Luckily, players could switch back and forth between ship types and choose which was best for the given task.

Perhaps the coolest innovation to Blasteroids, however, was the inclusion of two-player mode. And rather than taking turns, players could actually play simultaneously. In fact, they could even fly into each other and merge their ships into a lean, mean, fighting machine. One player could then handle the navigation, while the other manned the guns. This came in very handy when it eventually came time to battle Mukor’s menacing volcanic tubes, which spewed asteroids like there was no tomorrow. And at the end of each galaxy sector, the slimy Mukor stood waiting.

Blasteroids had an all-new updated look that featured digitized planets and an updated control system utilizing a rotary paddle in place of the former two-button rotation system. The game also incorporated a “Housequake” sound system that rumbled loud enough for any one in the vicinity to hear. With all of these improvements, however, the game came at a time when everyone was busy practicing their fighting skills on side-scrolling games like Double Dragon, and, unfortunately, few took notice of the new advanced game. And looking back, while it was certainly a cool game in its own right, it lacked the simple charm that made Asteroids such an overwhelming success. Still, it didn’t spell the end of the Asteroids franchise which, when the arcade market slowed, simply moved into the realm of home gaming with a newer 3D version.