Horizon

1985 was a dark time for arcades, as the crash had happened a few years earlier due to everyone's favorite nonthreatening alien, ET, starring in a horrible atari 2600 game which, along with a few other factors, collapsed the industry. The home market was pretty much dead until the NES came along, and while arcades kept chugging along, they didn't produce the hits that they used to, and inspiration seemed to run dry. A few classics did come from this year, such as Gauntlet and Space Harrier, but most titles seemed to languish in obscurity, such as the subject of today's post.

Horizon was somewhat based on the classic Irem title Moon Patrol, and in fact comes from the same company. Moon Patrol has appeared in a few classics collections, but doesn't have the fame or notoriety of, say, Donkey Kong or Galaga. It's like the 1910 Fruitgum Company to Pac-Man's Beach Boys. Horizon is even more obscure. It adds quicker play and an extra dimension to Moon Patrol, and takes away the jump button. Instead, you transition between 3 layers of play, shooting alien drones on all three lines, grabbing fuel and avoiding obstacles. The game scales and plays smoothly, and must have looked great at the time, with snes-level 3d effects, but gets repetitive fast. Horizon is not really an amazing improvement on Moon Patrol, as it lacks variety in both landscapes and powerups . Ultimately, Horizon is fun to play for a few minutes, but doesn't really have any lasting appeal.