Blue Max. What a game. Set, I believe, in WW2 you are the pilot of an allied fighter/bomber and it’s your mission to take off, bomb as many buildings, tanks, cars, boats, bridges and enemy airstrips plus shoot down the occasional enemy fighter then land for re-fuelling (not easy matter).
As with all Commodore 64 games the graphics can best be described as ‘chunky’ and most objects seem to be mainly of the square variety but that’s not the point is it. We play these games because they are addictive and the game play is simple and easy to understand.
And Blue max is no different. From the first gentle tug back on the joystick to the nudging of the nose down to land this game has it all.
Now let me take you to not so complex nature of this game. There you are an aircraft on the runway ready to go. A quick click of the button and you’re moving but don’t dawdle you’ve got to take off before that runway runs out but don’t try taking off before you hit 100mph as you’ll just never get off the ground and leave a blackened mess on the runway. When you’ve reach 100mph pull up and watch that plane fly. Now to the important part, bombing. To bomb you will need to pull
back on your gear stick and press fire, just make sure you have enough altitude before bombing or you will crash and burn.
Shooting planes is a little more difficult as you have to get the same altitude as them. This can be achieved by adjusting your altitude until the bar across the bottom turns light blue. Once this happens it means you are on the same altitude as the enemy plane move into the same line as him and fire your machine gun and take that sucker down. All this time your fuel will be decreasing from 200 and when it gets low you’ll have to land on a friendly airstrip that will refuel you and even repair your aircraft, if necessary, but watch out you can be bombed whilst this is happening.
Landing! Probably the most difficult thing to do in this game when you see the airstrip first of all get into position, secondly watch your altitude gently descend until you are very low then when you are over the airstrip just nudge your way down. If you do this too fast you will crash and become very infuriated (I know by experience) but if you are careful you’ll do just fine.
Apparently, there are levels to this game and certain objects must be achieved before going on to the next level such as bombing flashing buildings (why not make yourself a target!) and objects with bulls-eyes on them (you’re just asking for it) but this has really never bothered me the sheer excitement of bombing the hell out of anything is perfect for me and also my Dad!
