A playthrough of Mindscape's 1990 NES game, The Last Starfighter.

Following in Mindscape's odd trend of publishing NES titles based on at the time of release old movies (including Dirty Harry, Mad Max, and Terminator), The Last Starfighter is a shooter bearing the license of the 1984 teenager-vs-universe space action flick of the same name. I always like the movie, and it was an impressive special-effects production for how old it is, but it's safe to say that it had been all-but-forgotten by the time this game rolled out six years later.

So how is it? Well, it's not really related at all to the movie, so if that is your interest in the game, it probably won't satisfy. On its own, however, The Last Starfighter is a pretty solid 80's arcade-style shooter.

It's actually a port, or maybe more accurately, an adaptation, of the 1986 classic Uridium for the Commodore 64. While it's by no means perfect, it is a reasonable facsimile that is (mercifully) significantly easier than the original computer game. The C64 version was an incredible looking title that would eat you for breakfast with its screaming-fast game play and swarming enemies.

The NES version scales everything back just enough that, while it retains the spirit and feel of the original, ends up being a much more manageable challenge, and consequently, a more fun experience. Each level starts you flying left-to-right, taking out waves of spacecraft and dodging structures and incoming fire. Once you've destroyed a sufficient number, you'll get a message instructing you to land. At this point, you fly to the furthest right landing strip, park your jet, set a bomb, and escape. It's pretty simple and straightforward, but it's anything but easy.

The controls are a bit of an odd duck - the ship is always centered on the screen, and left and right control your speed. If you're going the slowest possible speed already, hitting left will turn your ship around to face the other way. They work just fine once you get used to them, but things certainly do take a bit to get the hang of.

The graphics and sound aren't anything particularly special. They're functional and inoffensive, and generally bland without being annoying or distracting. It's obviously cut back a fair amount from the computer version, but it's still a respectable showing.

If you like difficult 80s shooters, this is a good one. Once you master it, it's fairly easy to blast through the entire game in no time, but getting there will definitely test your skills. I really liked The Last Starfighter, and was really surprised to find when I poked around Google that it's not very well regarded. If you've never played it because of the negative attention it seems to attract, give it a go. You might find yourself enjoying it no matter what the internet tells you on how you should feel about it.

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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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