Impossible Mission

Impossible Mission casts the player as an agent who must infiltrate the sprawling underground fortress of a mad scientist and stop his plan for world domination before time runs out. The game combines platform jumping between rooms full of robots and traps with a search for passwords hidden in scattered pieces of furniture, which must be searched and pieced together into a working access code. This combination of action and logical puzzle-solving makes the game something between a platformer and an adventure, forcing the player to constantly switch between cautious movement and systematic searching of the space.

On the Atari 7800, the game preserves the room layout and the main character's distinctive movement, including the need for precisely timed jumps between platforms and dodging moving robots that stun the player on contact and cost precious time. The soundtrack uses short, sharp digitized voice samples with which the robots comment on the action, giving the game an unmistakable atmosphere that at the time of release felt like a technical treat few consoles of the day could manage. Time pressure keeps the tension going throughout, since every drawer searched and every puzzle solved eats into the remaining limit, so the player has to choose which rooms to explore thoroughly and which to rather just pass through quickly.

The original computer version was praised for its original blend of genres and atmospheric presentation and was among the standout titles of the mid-1980s, when this kind of combination of action and puzzle-solving investigation was uncommon. Porting it to the Atari 7800 made the game accessible to console players as well, and the core charm of searching rooms and piecing together passwords remained intact, with the underlying principle unchanged. Even today the game works as a well-crafted challenge that rewards patience and a systematic approach, and it rightfully belongs among the titles on this platform that deserve a try.

Why play it: For a well-crafted challenge that rewards patience and systematic room searching, one that holds up today thanks to its original blend of action and puzzles.