Lunar Jetman
| Lunar Jetman | |
|---|---|
Title screen
|
|
| Developer(s) | Tim and Chris Stamper |
| Publisher(s) | Ultimate Play the Game |
| Platform(s) | ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro |
| Release |
ZX Spectrum
|
| Genre(s) | Arcade |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Publication | Score |
| Crash | 95% |
| Home Computing Weekly |  |
Lunar Jetman is a shooter video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game. It was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1984. This sequel to Jetpac is the second instalment of the Jetman series and one of the few games released to support the Currah Microspeech peripheral. In the game, Jetman has to destroy alien bases whilst simultaneously defending himself, along with Earth, from a hostile alien race.
Lunar Jetman was Ultimate Play the Game's first game to require 48K of RAM — all previous productions had run on unexpanded 16K models. The game was written by Chris Stamper with graphics designed by Tim Stamper. It was met with critical acclaim upon release, with praise mostly directed at its addictive gameplay and wide range of colours. The game was followed by a third episode, Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship, released for the NES in 1990. It was later included in Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, Rare Replay.
Once again taking on the role of Jetman, players find themselves on the surface of a small purple moon. Similarly to its predecessor, the player can move around slowly on foot, or use a jetpack to leave the ground and navigate the moon faster. However, unlike Jetpac, Jetman's jetpack has limited fuel and must be topped up regularly. In addition to the jetpack, the player has a moon rover for ground travel, inside of which they are invulnerable to damage. However, the moon rover can only negotiate smooth terrain, and Jetman may need to use bridging kits obtained from the rover to fill in craters on the moon's surface. The moon rover doubles as a refuelling point for Jetman's jetpack.
Aside from the rover and its bridging kits, Jetman has access to three other pieces of equipment, all of which can be carried on the bonnet of the rover, albeit one at a time. Bombs must be used to destroy alien bases when they are encountered, which can only be accomplished when Jetman is flying above them. Another piece of equipment is a cannon that may be mounted onto the rear side of the moon rover. The final piece of equipment is a pair of teleporters which can be used to instantaneously transport the player to the teleporter's twin, thus allowing rapid transport around the moon.
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Wikipedia