"This game sucks, its fucking too hard, lets go play Zaxxon instead", is what was typically said about Gravitar during its brief stint in arcades in mid 1982. Regarded by Arcade owners as a "horrible game", and blown off by gamers who were turned away to the extreme challenge known as Gravitar. Gravitar would become Atari's biggest arcade flop of 1982 (nowhere near the collasal mistake of 2600 Pac Man and ET though), Atari had to figure out a way to turn some type of profit on this "awful game", and did so by offering a kit to convert Gravitar machines into Black Widow's: a very pretty, yet lacking vector Robotron clone. Despite the general publics hatred for this game, it has had a small steady following ever since its debut, all of which I find justified for a grossly underrated game...

Thats harder then Lara Crofts polygon ass!

Gravitar plays excellently. At first you will think otherwise as the game is HARD! It takes great finesse to pass the 5 zones Gravitar offers, especially zone 4 which is damn strange, and tricky to pass. Picking up the required fuel is an incredibly fun challenge, as is blowing up the Reactor core on the final zone. The "Gravity" in the game is superbly simulated, much like 1979's Lunar Lander, only much "stronger". 

Gravitar also is a pioneer in that it was the FIRST game to employ a realtime dynamic perspective. What this means is that as the game ZOOMS up when you are close to the planets surface, your little ship is fully playable during the transfer. Realtime dynamic perspective would become popular 9-10 years later with the advent of scaling fighting games like Art of Fighting, and later on Polygon Fighters which randomly change viewpoints but dont halt the gameplay.

Gravitar is simple, and elegant when it comes to graphics. The game looks awesome in the dark (as do all vectors), with nice graphical touches like scaling (see realtime dynamic perspective), and smooth "sprite" rotation. I could watch the vibrantly bouncy Gravitar title logo for hours on end, as a matter of fact I will go as far to say that Gravitar has the nicest Title Screen in any Atari Vector! In the aural department, Gravitar sounds just like any other Atari Vector, quite similar to Asteroids actually. While not spectacular, the sounds get the job done. 

In Closing

At first I was turned off by Gravitars EXTREME difficulty, but as I tried it more and more, the more I started to appreciate it for what it is: a very hard game that plays great. Not much more to say about it, do yourself a favor and try Gravitar out.

I'm giving it a...

8.75(out of possible 1-10 rating, 1 being worse, 10 being best.) 

Peace, Love and Understanding.

Ginger Firecracker