Astro Command is a clone of the arcade hit Scramble from Konami (1980), and quite a good one considered the limited features of the Epoch Cassette Vision console. Its is also one of the latest games released for the Cassette Vision. It's clear the that programmers tried to push the system to its limits.
As in the original version, your fuel is limited and you must constantly keep an eye on its level (upper left number on the screenshots). If it reachs zero, your ship will crash. So you have to keep destroying fuel tanks on your way to keep the fuel level high.
Each game is divided into four levels:
- the city: avoid ground missiles and destroy mines while flying over the space cuty
- enemy base: maneuver smartly inside the tight corridors of the enemy base
- the cave: avoid missiles launched from the ground and the ceiling
- the boss: after the laser barrier, fight the big boss. Kill it by shooting in its center five times.
The game is one player only but offers 2 difficulty levels.
As usual with the Cassette Vision when games require 4 driections movement, the controls are difficult to get used to, as there are no up/down built-in the console. Here the left player leveler is used to move your ship up/down while the two action buttons are used to move forward/backward. Cumbersome.