"Difficult." "Annoying." "Hard as hell." "Coin-devouring." "The worst game ever made." Reviews for Gravitar are littered with phrases like these, making it very clear this game is not for the faint of heart. However, Gravitar can in fact be a very good game for those who prefer a little more depth in their arcade experience.
Using control scheme similar to arcade Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, Gravitar presents five buttons to the player, two for rotating left and right, one for thrust, one to fire, and one to control the player's shields and tractor beam. Mastering the art of when to use each button, and how to juggle all of those functions at once, is a tall thing to ask someone used to games like Pac-Man or Space Invaders, or even Asteroids, where most of the time extra features like thrust and hyperspace could be effectively ignored or relegated to "last resorts." Fans of arcade Defender perhaps would be better prepared, but even in Defender not every feature was essential to a good long game, and there wasn't the ever-present pull of gravity to worry about! In Gravitar, every button and every function of the ship is vital, and sometimes they all have to be used at once if there is to be any hope of survival. Battling both enemy fire and gravity itself demands constant vigil, with scarce chances to pause and mentally regroup. It's no wonder that Gravitar wasn't a massive success in the arcades, and yet this extra realism and freedom of control is what makes the game so great, at least for those willing to take the time to master its interface and its brutally unforgiving environment. Those who succeed will find a wonderfully big universe to explore and conquer.
Gravitar probably never will be universally loved, for the same reason not everybody loves deeply detailed games like SimCity or Call of Duty. But like the best of those other games, Gravitar offers satisfying rewards for those willing to earn them. That's hardly deserving of being called "the worst game ever made."
Grade: A-.