A playthrough of Activision's 1990 action-platformer for the NES, The Adventures of Rad Gravity.
Long ago on the planet Quark, scientists developed technology that allowed them to travel across vast expanses of space at hyperlight speed. They used this technology to establish nine colonies spanning three solar systems, thus forming the interstellar empire known as the United Planets.
Contact between these colonies was maintained by a network of supercomputers, the CompuMinds, but a madman named Agathos has disabled the CompuMind network and fractured the union. One of these computers, Kakos, was recently found and reactivated, and the union president has tasked Rad Gravity and Kakos with rebuilding the network and restoring the United Planets to its former glory. Rad's quest will take him to each of the UP's nine diverse worlds where he'll be solving puzzles and killing baddies as he searches for the lost CompuMinds.
So explains the manual and the comic book included with The Adventures of Rad Gravity, a quirky platformer by Interplay that was released in December of 1990.
It's a non-linear action game that encourages exploration and experimentation, and progress is made by finding and making clever use of items that grant Rad new abilities. Each world has its own memorable theme and set of challenges - like the inverted gravity of Turvia, or the ice cream truck heist on Effluvia - which lend the gameplay an absurd but grand sense of sci-fi adventure.
Once you've become accustomed to Rad's annoying tendency to slide off of ledges, the action controls well, and the puzzles are tough, but the game regularly drops subtle hints on how to approach them. Things can feel pretty unforgiving at first, but everything smooths out as you get into the game's peculiar groove. (That last boss fight, though - so, so frustrating!)
The graphics are sharp and full of funny little details, and the soundtrack sounds like it was pulled straight out of Maniac Mansion, which I thought was great. The main theme plays on loop through the whole game, but it's a stylist toe-tapper, so I didn't mind too much.
I really enjoyed The Adventures of Rad Gravity. It has its moments of frustration, but the fun twists it puts on the hop'n'bop formula and its silly 50s sci-fi vibes ultimately won me over. Like Rad's enormous chin, his adventure isn't something you're likely to soon forget.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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30 май 2024
