Zaxxon is one of Sega's most famous arcade games, and its arrival on the SG-1000 was a major event for console owners. The original 1982 arcade machine became famous for taking a classic shooter and placing it in a slanted isometric view, in which the player controls not just side-to-side movement but also flight altitude. That altitude is the whole joke of the game. A fighter jet weaves over a fortress full of walls, towers, force barriers, and hangars, and the player must constantly watch the altitude indicator to fly through a gap in a wall or get low enough to shoot down a ground target. Alongside that, you need to keep an eye on fuel, which only gets replenished by hitting barrels scattered around the base.
The game loop is split between passages over the fortress and in-between sequences in open space, where formations of enemy fighters attack, and finally a robotic opponent the game is named after. The SG-1000 home version had to simplify the color palette and the amount of detail that dazzled players in the arcade, yet it manages to keep what matters most: the sense of space and the need to constantly recalculate what altitude you're actually at. The shadow beneath the jet remains a key aid for judging position, and without it the game would be practically unplayable. The soundtrack relies on stark effects generated by the console's sound chip, which nonetheless underline the tension of threading through narrow corridors well.
Zaxxon had an enormous impact in its time, and its isometric approach influenced a whole wave of games that tried to create a sense of depth on a two-dimensional screen. The SG-1000 version can't match the arcade technically today, but it works as a period document of how manufacturers tried to bring big arcade experiences into living rooms. Anyone who gets used to controlling altitude will find a still brisk and surprisingly demanding game, where every attempt counts in mere tens of seconds and improvement is very tangible. Zaxxon also shows well how early Sega tried to set itself apart from the competition with an idea and a technical trick, not with sheer volume of content.
Game 2 of 13 for SEGA SG-1000
The same title elsewhere (4)
The 1982 ColecoVision version ranks among the best-regarded home conversions of the arcade original — the console managed to carry over the tilted isometric view and colour palette well enough that it felt almost like a little sibling of the arcade machine. The 1985 SEGA SG-1000 port had to cut back on far weaker hardware: fewer colours, coarser graphics and choppier background scrolling, so the sense of height and depth that Zaxxon relies on comes through noticeably weaker. Anyone wanting to feel why Zaxxon was a visual sensation in its day should reach for the ColecoVision version.
