Perhaps borrowing a masochistic trick or two from the movie Tron, this contest places you in a
vehicle on a grid suspended in space. Going over the edge of the grid is bad
news, and yet that's exactly where you must ram every other object on the
screen. Be careful: Isaac Newton's laws of motion apply here, and every action
begets a reaction, namely your vehicle being bounced as far back as your target
has been knocked ahead. And depending on the configuration of the playing
field, which eventually evolves to include gaps in the middle of the screen
which can only be jumped with the proper combination of "power parts"
and "jump parts," ramming an enemy can put you over the edge too.
Later levels introduce more aggressive enemies which will leave you almost
strictly on the defensive. (Good tip? Position yourself between two enemies
and let the recoil from attacking one help you put another one out of the game
as well.) Lingering too long on the playing field will cause whoever's in
charge of this genteel sporting event to hurl projectiles at the field, blasting
holes out of the grid which must then be jumped or avoided - and even your own
jumps can weaken or destroy other squares on the grid.
(Namco, 1985)
Say what you like about Namco, but they've probably introduced more singularly
addictive games to the arcades than any other company out there, and those games
cover a more diverse palette than today's never-ending smorgasboard of fighting
and sports titles. Case in point? Motos, a game which didn't get a huge
amount of attention since it hit the arcades between the great 1983/84 video
game industry implosion and the NES area (1986 and later). And while it's not
entirely original - the ability to do nothing but ram your opponents was
central to Gottlieb's earlier title Reactor - Motos at least puts the game
in a somewhat less abstract context. (Note I said "somewhat.")
Not one of Namco's higher-profile titles, the only occurrence of Motos
on any modern-day console is its inclusion on the Japanese-only release of
Namco Museum Encore.
Rating:
Four quarters - a couple of minor irritants, but mostly a compelling and
addictive game.
Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com editor/webmaster
Four quarters - a couple of minor irritants, but mostly a compelling and
addictive game.
