Story:
Asteroids Chasers doesn’t have a story due to the fact that it’s actually a card game. The original card game it’s based on is called Cheese Chasers. Cheese Chasers was created by Brian McMillin.
Gameplay:
The game is tile-based and is played in an overhead perspective on a grid. You have a randomly chosen tile that you have to place on the grid and your placement of the tiles determines your points. There are Asteroids, Pirates, Mines, Probes, and Hyper Probes. Your goal is to play all your cards in your deck while trying to get the highest score. Cards must be placed adjacent to one another in order to be placed.
Pirates will disable probes and placing three asteroids adjacent to one another in a row will cause you to lose the game. The game will show you legal moves you can make and will not allow you to make an illegal move. In fact, if there are no legal moves you can make, your game will end.
The game offers three game modes which are Easy, Basic, and Plus. Each mode will determine how many of each card will appear in the deck and the total number of cards in the deck. Easy mode gives you thirty cards, Basic mode has forty, and Plus mode gives you sixty cards.
One neat thing about this game is that it supports achievements. Yes, achievements in a GameBoy game. These achievements are awarded based on card combinations and will unlock things like new cards, game modes, and cosmetic options.
Graphics and Performance:
Graphically, the game looks really good with some good detail in the cards themselves. I appreciate the fact that you can tell what each card is pretty easily. Because this is a card game, there isn’t much more than that in the graphics department.
You won’t find any scrolling effects or explosions, just card placement with an on/off state animation. Performance with the game is what you would expect with a card game that doesn’t have much going on. It performs as you would expect, though I do like how the game was optimized to prevent slowdown with the number of cards you have on the field at any given time.
Sound:
The game doesn’t offer much in the way of sound, but what’s here is pretty good. There is a single music track that is pretty upbeat and almost sounds like pop music. Though there is only one track, it’s not something that is monotonous and is kind of catchy. I would have liked to have seen at least a few tracks offered, or maybe a track selection in the options menu or right before you start the game.
Conclusion:
Asteroids Chasers is a fun card game that is available on the original Gameboy. Now I know that I knocked the graphics, performance, and a bit on the sound, but that’s not to say the game is bad and should discourage you from checking it out. This is a card game, you can’t expect much in those departments apart from sound.
On the contrary, the game is fun, engaging, and very challenging. I found myself enjoying the game quite a bit and at times, hard to put down. If you’re looking for a fun card game on the go, you can’t go wrong with Asteroids Chasers.
The game can be played for free here, while a physical version can be bought here and a deluxe physical version can be bought here.
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.