2025/12/6: Atari XEGS: Crime Buster, L.A. Swat, Panther

[VideoGameCritic]

I've been sitting on these reviews for a while, so glad to finally get them out.

Crime Buster is a minor re-review, with the grade bumped from C- to C+.

L.A. Swat and Panther are new reviews, although previously reviewed for the C64.

Let me know what you think.

[matmico399]

Really enjoy the reviews. Some pretty unique games.

Crime Buster looks like it would be a blast. Driving and shooting at different parts of the game. I was really like to play this but I don't have the console. I need to check out if it's available on another console.

[BlasteroidAli]

I had a chat with the C64 critic some years back, he had reviewed Blue Max and Blue Max 2001. So I asked him if he had played Panther, which is basically the third part of the trilogy. I had played it on the Atari 800xl via my tape drive. It was superb and the music. After a while, he found this great disc, Atari one side Commodore the other. I mean, it was a golden opportunity to get the critic to review some games I loved back in the day. I put that thought right out of my head. Then I get up today to find Christmas has come early. Not one review but 3, of my fave system back in the day. I stupidly gave mine away. I do have an Atari mini but the controls are a bit suspect.

So imagine my joy, to find out that the critic was going to play some of the games I loved back when I lived in horrible old Forest Gate. It is in East London, but the place is horrible. An Irish area of London and famed for it when I moved in. When I left New Delhi. Interesting but the character had changed. Quite a rough area. A hit man had come into one of the local pubs to rub out a gang rival, only to be beaten to death by 25 people in the pub. Woo. Forget LA Swat, Forest Gate Swat.

I think it is a fair assessment of both games. I liked LA Swat as it was a commando style game with decent graphics and a good price of £2 back in the day. Furthermore, I remember it being good but a bit hard. Essentially a top-down shooter, but you got to play the role of LA's finest, the SWAT.

Then Panther. A perfect review which encompasses all that is good about it.

[Stalvern]

Crime Buster sounds wild. A light gun game that uses the gun to shoot controller inputs is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard of. The "normal" stages look great, though.

Errata:

Panther
The first level has oil pumps, not rigs.

L.A. SWAT
The title should be all-caps both here and on the C64 page (and in both Panther reviews). SWAT is an acronym.
The screenshot shows the C64 version instead of the Atari version.
"Molotov cocktails" should be properly capitalized.
"Whatever you do, try not shoot the old man" is missing "to".
The note at the end of the review says that this game is paired with itself on the floppy.

[BlasteroidAli]

I agree, capitalise SWAT. Special Weapons And Tactics. Interestingly, there was a Sinclair Spectrum version, that I did not play. It looked atrocious, and the reviews seem to suggest that it was thus.