90: Nebulus

Number 90
(65.1 points)
Nebulus
1991: 14 (8.7)
1992: 36 (13.0)
1993: 39 (24.8)
1994: 70 (18.6)

It wasn't often that a Commodore 64 port got such high praise from the magazine, but Nebulus clearly maintained its fans in the team, despite its age.

The object of the game is to get your character, Pogo, to the top of a tower, upon which it collapses as you escape in your submarine. This leads to a bonus level where you can catch fish, before heading on to the next tower. The game uses a neat graphical effect where the tower appears to rotate around you, and you must pass through doorways and jump on platforms to progress up the tower. Many enemies will get in your way, some of which may be dispatched with a thrown projectile, while others are immune.

A few games in this list have caused me no end of frustration: Fly Harder keeps the prize for now, but this one came close. It's so easy to be knocked down the tower, and once that happens, you're going to struggle to reach the top in the time given. The worst thing is this weird floating thing that appears at certain moments to fly towards you, and I've found that the game is entirely dependent on timing your ascent to avoid this object, since it can't be killed by firepower. It'll take you a while to master this game, but if you make it that far, you might well enjoy it - even if it's just a C64 game at heart.

Recommended TOSEC disk(s):
Nebulus (1988)(Hewson)[cr Defjam - CCS][t +2 Defjam - CCS]