Multiplayer Asteroids Invades Freetime

Chris Benjaminsen, a fellow who appears to be some kind of genius, has struck gold with this thing. Using the power of the Internets he has devised and deployed a retro gamer fan’s time-wasting paradise: Online. Multiplayer. Asteroids.

Now that’s what I’m taking about!

Ok, so there aren’t actually any asteroids to shoot, and that tiny little UFO with the terrifying accuracy is thankfully absent, but if you catch the game at the right time of day you’ll find a number of other players piloting their crafts…

It can be a hectic affair, with some truly deft navigation required to stay alive for longer than a heartbeat, but thankfully spinning around a bit and hammering your space bar will reliably rack up some points…

Cosmetically it remains very faithful to the original, and handles the presence of many players and all those projectiles very nicely, with no obvious slow-down. In fact at times it can look a little like a retro predecessor to the ever-popular Geomatry Wars. The controls too seem to be very accurate, with the ship turning at about the right speed… Acceleration seems a little speedy, but that’s a welcome improvemnent given the amount of action that you find yourself spawning into…

This version also introduces a very basic set of power ups to try to spice up the proceedings… They range from a basic shield to a double cannon, and while they don’t really add anything to the gameplay they don’t really take anything away either. The double cannon can be useful if you stay alive long enough to use it, but other than that (and the temporary shield upon spawning) I don’t think they would be missed if removed.

Whether you’re a fan of the original or you just want to kill ten minutes playing a game that’s dead easy to learn, loads of fun and easy to put down once you’re done then you should head over to cogames.net to have a go. Who knows, I might even see you there myself!

Play it! (Make sure you turn your sound down… It’s very loud (and very annoying after precisely 0.736528743 seconds))

Update: Here’s a video of a person showing that stupid rubbish tiny little UFO what for…