Scramble

May 20, 2021

Scramble introduced the world to level-based side-scrolling shooters and inspired the development of legends like Gradius, but has since faded into relative obscurity. Like most firsts in the video game world, Scramble is impressive more because of what it started than because of what it is. Playing this game now, it's easy to see why it was a big deal when it released, but why nobody is really talking about it anymore.

In Scramble, you are tasked with surviving as long as possible while your ship automatically flies to the right. You have free range of motion on the left half of the screen, which you absolutely have to take advantage of in order to avoid both enemies and the terrain. To help, your ship is also equipped with two types of weapons. A regular blaster that fires straight forward, and a bombs that arc towards the ground. The blaster is especially useful for clearing your path, but proficiency with the bombs is about the only way to keep your ship in the air. As you fly, you'll notice fuel canisters on the ground. Destroying those, often with bombs, will partially refill your quickly draining fuel tank. If you run out of fuel at any point in your trip, your ship will hurtle to the ground and you'll need to start the level over again, which surprised me when I first lost a life.

Level transitions in Scramble are silky smooth, shaking up the terrain and enemies without so much as a pause. The first time I played, I thought the game was just increasing in difficulty. I didn't notice that I had started a new level until I died and my ship respawned right where the difficulty increased. Had I paid attention to the level markers as they switched color, I would have realized sooner that the new enemies were a result of me making it to the next phase, not just a simple difficulty increase. Each level does a good job of introducing a new mechanic or requiring a new strategy, which makes the game more interesting, but I think some of the design choices end up being a little less than fair.

This level switching structure was pretty unique when the game came out, but the differences between each level and the unfair design make it feel a bit archaic by today's standards. I wasn't used to resource management in games from this era, and I appreciated the extra layer that it added to the strategy of Scramble, but it ultimately made we want to play the game less thanks to the difficulty in landing the bombs just right. For its historical significance alone, Scramble is worth a try. Just don't expect to be blown away.