Last Duel
Do you promise it's the last? Only, I have places to be...
The thing about Last Duel is that it is not LED Storm. That’s a fact that somehow managed to slip my attention until about 10 minutes before recording my most recent video.
The other thing about Last Duel is that it is yet another Atari ST arcade conversion that comes this close to being a good game.
It’s got smooth (horizontal) scrolling, is responsive, colourful, nippy and pretty fun to play… at first. The accompanying tune is passable and the pixel art is decent, everything is very distinct and very quick and easy to read. There’s even a plot of sorts told in-game with cut scenes and everything.
You start off as a car: overhead view, storming up the track and jumping obstacles and hazards (now you can see where the LED Storm confusion came from) while blasting enemy vehicles and turrets that get in your way. Picking up large golden letters will power you up to help you deal with the challenges ahead. If you manage to despatch the end-of-level boss in time and with lives intact you transform into a spaceship and take to the inky void to blast some more enemies.
So far, so fun. But here’s the rub. Well, here’s multiple rubs. So many rubs that you could describe Last Duel as a little abrasive. First of all, the plague of so many ST arcade conversions rears its ugly head yet again: the single fire button. To jump, you press up and fire. But of course, you are pressing up and fire a lot to move forward while you are firing, so unintentional jumps pop off every few seconds. And you can’t pick up power-ups while airborn. I missed so many vital pickups this way. Then, the cardinal sin of shoot ‘em ups makes an appearance: cheap deaths from behind. 50 lashes to you, Mr Developer. Of course, you lose all your power-ups upon losing a life, and of course that incredibly jarring horizontal flip-scrolling from LED Storm is back in full effect. Exfoliating.
I made a video of me playing it. There’s some info about the original, a chat about the plot and a look at some magazine reviews. You can watch the video here, if you like.
So, in summary, there’s a lot to like here, but so many niggles that I find it impossible to recommend that you give Last Duel a try, dear reader. Oh well, on to the next…