I have extremely little experience with the ZX Spectrum computer console. So little that I never even knew what it looked like until writing this review. The only other ZX Spectrum game that I had ever played was a port of Jetpac that was bundled with its digital-only remake on the Xbox 360, Jetpac Refueled. So going into Penetrator, I had a small idea regarding what the console was capable of. And this game didn't seem very well optimized in comparison, along with a couple of other problems.
For starters, the main menu gives you the option to disable the annoying siren going off on that screen and no other sound. Honestly, for that, I could just mute the entire game altogether, especially considering how loud the "music" is in the rest of the game. But while we're in the menu, I do like that it has a feature to make and save your own levels, which uses the default one as the template. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow you to alter the length or set any level marks, so designing levels would probably get pretty restrictive as you would either start making parts of it without an idea in mind or you would have to condense or cut out a lot of stuff that you'd want in.
So the main objective is to fly through four levels (or lines of defenses, if you want) while shooting and bombing rockets and paratroopers that are ready to blow you out of the air, then destroy an illegal cache of neutron bombs at the end. Afterwards, you fly through said levels backwards to complete a loop. The rockets can launch randomly upon your ship crossing its... well, "beacon" of sorts that's at a 45-degree angle, meaning that it could have multiple chances to launch if you move back and cross it again. I read that the satellites "analyze your movements", which could imply that destroying them could make rockets less likely to launch, but it doesn't seem to make any difference at all. The paratroopers, which only appear in level 4, are locked in a single vertical column in the air moving about randomly until you get close enough to them, in which they'll try to move to your horizontal position and kamikaze into you. The way that both of these enemies behave can be exploited for your own benefit, making a challenging game very fair.... at least on paper.
For starters, the Fire command is mapped to the same key as what you use to move right on the screen. Not only that, but whether you fire or move depends on how long you hold the key, which is really inconvenient for making swift movements. And it only applies to that one key; the rest of the arrow keys allow quick tapping for one-pixel movements, which could throw you off. Since the developers had the whole keyboard at their disposal, there was no reason for them to not map the Fire command to a different key altogether.
The performance can get unstable pretty often. The slowdown and ship movement can actually lead to some rockets scrolling sideways into the walls and blowing themselves up. It also plays a hand in the biggest issue I have with this game: The inputs are constantly being eaten, especially when quickly tapping a key. Sometimes I'd get a bullet out, sometimes the ship would move, sometimes it doesn't do anything. Needless to say, it's what makes the game needlessly more difficult than it should've been. Although, there is another major issue that absolutely needed to be changed, but wasn't, even if very few people see it. After destroying the neutron bomb cache at the end, the screen immediately flashes colors like crazy for a moment, which could lead to a potential seizure for someone sensitive to it. Yeah, what a great reward for finally making it to the halfway point, huh?
The Steam version has it's own separate menu with things like image settings and save states, but it doesn't say anywhere that you have to press the Escape key to open it, leaving me to discover it on accident. And even though the Steam page advertises support with most modern controllers, it's really just relegated to being an official template with Steam Input. They technically didn't lie, but it can still be interpreted as dishonesty by omission. But even then, it's just another step that the common player needs to take that shouldn't even be necessary if you're going to put it on Steam. Native controller support really should've just been part of the game itself, especially since it's the kind of game that would make sense to use one.
So yeah, despite being able to do two loops back-to-back, Penetrator on the ZX Spectrum was really bad. I hear that, out of all the computer console versions that came out, this is the worst one. I get that they probably chose this one because it was the original game, but if you had the option to only port one version to Steam if grouping them all into one package was out of the question, wouldn't it make sense to just have the best one? I've played a better ZX Spectrum game before, so it probably wouldn't be wise to use this one as a benchmark for the general overall quality of its library.
