‘Destroy all crazy robots!’
After a solid week of hitting, Hamster returns to the source of the golden age with the release of the Arcade Archives this week, with the return of UPL’s 1980s space shooter Nova 2001, now available for download on Nintendo Switch.
Originally released in the arcades in 1983 – back when the idea of 2001 technology seemed like the stuff of an HG Wells novel – Nova 2001 puts players in the pilot’s seat of a small, state-of-the-art spaceship battling large waves of enemy invaders. Players can zoom and shoot in eight different directions and battle five types of enemies, each armed with their own unique attack formation.
Nova 2001 was supposed to be a further development of some of the earliest eight-way shmups in the gaming world, such as the Atari classic Asteroids. Unfortunately. UPL’s shmup would be massively dwarfed by Williams’ more ambitious and technologically superior Sinistar, which launched that same year and took the arcade scene by storm. Nova 2001 wasn’t without its own charm, with a variety of backgrounds and fast-paced, button-hitting action, it just couldn’t match the frightening atmosphere and synthesized language of the Williams classic.
You can check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber Old Classic Retro Gaming. Nova 2001 is now available for download on Nintendo Switch and costs around $ 8. It was previously made available on PS4.
Chris Moyse
Senior Editor – Chris has been playing video games since the 1980s. Former Saturday Night Slam Master. Graduated from Galaxy High with Honors.