Uridium Review

By Kristan Reed Published 26 October, 2007

Braybrook's finest hour.

Version tested: Retro

In an all-time list of great C64 games (or 8-bit games in general), Uridium should be near, if not right at the top of the list. At the absolute peak of his creative powers, Andrew Braybrook created the kind of effortlessly innovative and visually slick horizontal shooter that even die-hard Spectrum fans liked.

Unlike every other shooter in awe of the on-rails coin-op style, Braybrook seemed to realise he could come up with something much better than anything we were playing in the arcades. Uridium set players free, allowing them to fly their Manta Space Class Fighter freely over 'Dreadnoughts' which you had to systematically destroy by shooting the majority of its surface defences.

Doing so wasn't especially straightforward, because wave upon wave of determined enemy fighters would appear from the left or right side of the screen, forcing you to dodge and weave around the metallic environment, desperately trying to avoid impassable obstacles that littered each dreadnought. Worse still, homing mines would appear from certain sections of the dreadnought if you lingered too long, again, forcing you to skilfully outrun it.

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Demanding careful piloting skills, you'd also often find yourself forced to turn the ship on its side in order to slip through narrow gaps, and line yourself up correctly in order to land on the 'master runway' towards the rear of the Dreadnought. After each of the 15 levels, you'd engage in a typically enthralling Braybrook mini-game, where you'd have to press the fire button at the right time in order to pull fuel rods from metal converters. Every time you succeeded, the process would speed up to the point where it was more luck than judgement whether you scooped up extra points.

After that, the Dreadnought would vaporise spectacularly, allowing you a chance to shoot any remaining defences on your reverse journey.

With absolutely stunning metallic background graphics, slick animation, a wonderful theme tune and a finely honed learning curve, it's hard to think of a better shooter on the C64 - apart from the remixed Uridium +, perhaps.

10 / 10

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Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • JJKrista1 #1 5 years ago

    Uridium was good, but not that good - not a 10 anyway.

    I recall everyone was hooked on the "BAS shading", thinking its was the DB's, even though it lookled swet the gameplay wasn't the best IMHO.

  • AOFanboi #2 5 years ago

    So, better than Halo then?

    The game looks great, and plays great, and is worth getting the C64 stick for all by itself.

  • hbunny #3 5 years ago

    I had this, but much preferred Paradriod. I just wasn't good at this type of game.

  • Retroid #4 5 years ago

    Uridium was good but has always been overrated. This is no exception.

  • GitSomE_UK #5 5 years ago

    Yes it was good but Paradroid and the Sentinel pissed all over this game.

  • Killerbee #6 5 years ago

    Had this on the Speecy. Far too hard for my weakling reactions, but it was great to watch a master play.

  • Crunchikins #7 5 years ago

    Uridium is one of my favourite games on the C64 but let's not get carried away here! A score of 10/10 for a game that was desperately unfair on the player and had a control system that could be a complete lottery at times!?
    Uridium looked good and ran silky smooth and these facts conned a lot of reviewers back then. The actual gameplay though, well, seriously flawed if you ask me. I love playing it. I like my twitch games. But honestly, a score of 8/10 would be more appropriate with hindsight.

  • MyPointIs #8 3 years ago

    10???

    GTFO