Atlantis: Sky Patrol

Atlantis: Sky Patrol is an entertaining game for adults as well as young teens. It is an action game based on eye hand concentration but run with strategy as well. The overall looks of the game puts me in mind of Stargate Atlantis, possibly because it does have a futuristic yet mechanistic quality. However, Egyptian culture is never far removed, as can be seen with the game map.

The game goal is to shoot colored marbles at the rows of advancing marbles on their trails, making matches of three in order to make the marble section disappear. It is similar to Zuma except that the shooter is not stationary. The Atlantis: Sky Patrol shooter is placed at the bottom of the screen and is fully movable from side to side.

What makes this marble shooter game unique from the rest is the control parts. Control parts are stationary marble-looking points that require the shooter to hit the control part with a corresponding color in order for the extra waves of advancing marbles to stop. There is several control parts to each board, and all of them must be disabled to stop the flow.

When each Sky Patrol board is completely beaten, the player receives a bonus in the form of machine parts that must be caught. These machine parts, which looks like gears, can be used later in the game for a machine upgrade. Another bonus is the bonus round. In it, the shooter shoots through the air over and over. This breaks down the floating balls and eventually turns them into machine parts to be caught.

Of course, the game developers was not going to make the game real easy. The more you advance, the more strategy is needed. The control points are put in hard to hit places and behind of where two or more advancing marble rows prevent a clear shot. Luckily, every game has a power-up.

Atlantis: Sky Patrol is a wonderful game with nice graphics. Attention was paid to details. There was no skimping on the sound effects either. This could quickly turn into a favorite game of mine if it wasn’t for one small thing- the goofy cursor.

The cursor and the one inch square that it is in blinks constantly, and in some cases I see a cyber hole. I cannot say for sure that it is the game and not the machine, but I don’t have that problem with any other games. Other than the goofy cursor, I have found no other problems with this software. I hope to eventually not notice the blinking.

Atlantis: Sky Patrol is developed by Big Fish Games and can be bought or downloaded at www.bigfishgames.com. The cost is $19.95, but is considerably less if bought in a combo pack.