Collection essentials #20: River Raid (2600)

 

River Raid is considered one of the best Atari games, and for good reason. The Atari had many “shoot ‘em ups” (thanks largely due to a game coming up soon), but not many had a scrolling screen like River Raid does. In this game, you control a fighter plane as the screen level scrolls automatically, and you must dodge obstacles and shoot enemies trying for the highest score you can. What complicates matters is the fact that you have a limited amount of fuel, and you have to make sure you refuel regularly at fuel towers or else you’ll crash and burn. You can’t just shoot recklessly, or else you could accidentally destroy a crucial fuel tower!! But you can also strategically destroy them if you don’t need the fuel and want extra points. All this makes for gameplay that is fairly simple but challenge and engaging, and the result is one of the best games of the era that’s still plenty of fun all these years later.

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