The Adventures of Rad Gravity
System: NES
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Interplay
Publisher: Activision
Genre: Action
Reunite the nine planets and save the Federation in the Adventures of Rad Gravity! A comic in the manual recounts the story where the evil wizard Agathos mutated into a giant brain and cut off the planets from one another. Rad Gravity is chosen to fulfill the plan of the Compumind and save everyone!
You begin on the planet Cyberia and need to get the coordinates for the other planets from the mainframe. Jump with the A Button and swing your sword with the B Button. You have to get close to defeat your enemies and that can be dangerous if you don’t know how they move. While you’re searching for the building you need, you can come across upgrades to your minuscule health bar and a gun for your blasting action. If you’re really clever, you can have some enemies kill each other by avoiding their shots. Disabling the security system gets you to your destination, shoot these blips to open your way forward.
Dying gives you a password for later and kicks you back to the ship. Hope you want to go through the level again! Afterward, the Compumind is in the process of being stolen and you need to save him. These stupid things jump on your head and make the already floaty jumps more of a pain in the butt. If you don’t save the Compumind, he’ll become your enemy! Pick him up and teleport out of there.
Saving the day allows you to choose the next level you want to take it to from the galaxy map. I got stuck on each planet I tried. The volcano level lacked a way into the core that I could find. The upside down gravity planet trapped me by sending a flying shark at me to knock me into a water trap. The dinosaur planet trapped me behind a key and lock puzzle when I couldn’t discern the way to get the key over a tall obstacle. So I called it quits before I got more annoyed.
Graphics: 1.5
The menu screen is pretty cool, but the levels look less good.
Sound: 1.0
Dissonance is the playbook of this composer and I didn’t care for it much at all.
Gameplay: 1.0
Jump, attack, find things you need in the level, fall into pits, hit start really quick when you’re about to die, and teleport back to the ship.
Difficulty: 1.5
I’m sure the levels can all be beaten, but my patience wore thin pretty quickly.
Fun Factor: 1.0
The levels aren’t laid out well, they’re too sprawling and full of useless enemies and bad puzzles.
Overall Rating: 1.2
The Adventures of Rad Gravity earns a D+. I found this to be a pretty crappy game and I’m disappointed that Interplay was making lousy stuff like this.