This was a great little game from back in the days. It is not very sophisticated by today's standards but it lives up to its name: "Time Bandit"...cause it will excite your idol hours of vintage gaming. Watch out for points counter its a little funky sometimes. Also the character action will take a new comer off guard if they are not familiar with the gameplay.
Make sure to look up instructions online before playing Time Bandit for the first time or it will be frustrating.
This top down shooter game requires the player to collect keys. A basic strategy is to gain great proficiency at one level before advancing to the next as the difficulty goes up exponentially after passing the first few levels. Another cool feature, which is recommendable although not neccesary, is to do the side tasks which reward the player with several artifacts. Once again the difficulty of these tasks increases as the levels increase.
The background scenery can sometimes cause the player to die so watch out for that. The graphics are very basic but thats comparable to games at the time...after all this was Atari and not the Segas and such that came almost a decade later.
Do not touch the truck
with the plane or it blows up. If any thing else touches the truck then the truck will be destroyed. Just protect the truck and everything will be ok. I could not find out what the other jets that appear in the sky are for. Once the plans you are shoot at get to the groud you can not shoot them. Its weird. If you let off the joystick the plane drops. That is also weird. After level one the enemy planes must be shot at several times before they will explode. Also beware they can blow up your plane alot easier too. Don't be too scared if the truck gets ahead of the screen, one can catch back up to it very easily. Also one can go backwards a little if they want to. It takes a little getting used to but the gameplay is fairly simple to get onto. Just keep at it and one will advance levels fairly quickly. As far as I got the scenery does not change which is a little annoying to know where one is headed.
Anyways all in all a good game, would recommend if one has time to kill. Just enjoy it for what it is, a vintage game. Best in your gaming!