Meltdown (Atari 7800)
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''Meltdown'' is a
light gun shooter Light-gun shooter, also called light-gun game or simply gun game, is a Shooter game, shooter video game video game genres, genre in which the primary design element is to simulate a shooting gallery (carnival game), shooting gallery by having ...
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
developed by
Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...
and published in 1990 for the
Atari 7800 The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges, making it the ...
. It is one of the few games compatible with the Atari XG-1 light gun accessory.


Plot

This game is set in a world where international terrorists have threatened to destroy the world. To accomplish this, the terrorists unleashed a weapon known as "sparkx" to attack 20 nuclear reactors. This weapon attacks the control rods of each reactor until forcing a nuclear meltdown. The player takes on the role of an unnamed hero tasked with destroying the sparkx within each reactor to save the world.


Gameplay

The object of the game is to protect the 20 nuclear reactor cores from sparkx. At the title screen, the player chooses one or two players and novice or expert difficulty. The player must shoot the sparkx before they damage the reactor core. If the player misses, a barrier temporarily appears. A maximum of four barriers can appear at a time. Sparkx will bounce off of the barriers adding a defensive strategy to the game. Sometimes power ups will appear on screen called power crystals and bonus blocks. The playfield area eventually shrinks, constraining the shooting area. If the reactor survives at the end of the round, the player is assigned a password to continue progress later, or can shoot to continue to the next reactor. The game ends when either the control rods are destroyed or if the player saves all 20 reactors.


Reception

Videogamecritic.com gave the game a C− in 1999, citing "boring" graphics and "too easy" gameplay.


References

{{reflist 1990 video games Atari 7800 games Atari 7800-only games Light gun games Video games about nuclear technology Video games about terrorism Video games developed in the United States