Konami's Scramble (1981) arcade screenshotWell, it was that time again yesterday, Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday, where Microsoft releases one new Xbox Live Arcade game each Wednesday until further notice. They missed last week, with technical difficulties with the still unreleased "Lumines Live!", but this week saw Konami's "Scramble" come out (Konami seems to be a HUGE Live supporter, don't they?).
For those unfamiliar with "Scramble", it's the 1981 arcade shooting game from Konami where you control a spaceship flying over a forced-scrolling landscape, able to shoot "bullets" and drop bombs, but needing to refuel frequently (by blowing up fuel tanks - go figure). To me, it's the lesser version of Universal's superior and contemporary "Cosmic Avenger", also from 1981, which features lusher landscapes and had a fun ColecoVision conversion that I played a ton of. In any case, I enjoy these types of games and many may be familiar with Scramble's sequel, "Super Cobra", which received conversions on countless platforms in the early to mid-80's courtesy of Parker Brothers.