Welcome to an exciting three‑dimensional Classic Game Room as I'm wearing the Vectrex 3D imager for the review of 3D Narrow Escape on the Vectrex. The only way to properly watch this review is from deep within the R‑Zone.

3D Narrow Escape. I love the box art for this one. Except at least for me the left wall was blue and the right wall was green. And the enemies are not yellow, they are green. This game lies. A little bit. Enter the stellar fortress of a 23rd‑century warlord whose evil intent is to dominate your home star system and enslave all of its inhabitants. That doesn’t really sound all that much worse than reality, to be honest. Your mission is to navigate through the narrow and fast‑moving passages of the fortress, not the fortress of Narsad though, that’s a different game, and destroy the warlord’s defense forces and his powerful arsenal. Beware.

The passages of the fortress will encircle you in 3D terror while the warlord’s defense system becomes increasingly more menacing. Will you succumb to the evil of the warlord or destroy him and make a narrow escape Prepare to enter the world of 3D Narrow Escape, which you really won’t be able to see on the recording, but the spaceship is red. The enemies are green and you crash into the wall very easily.

Yeah. Stupid aliens. What did I crash into I don’t even know. What you do in Narrow Escape is shoot things in the hallway level until you make it to the geometric shapes of death level where you have to fly through those little openings and then collect the fuel cells in order to survive the next hallway level or more likely just crash into something. Narrow Escape is a tricky game and even with the mighty 3D imager I had a hard time flying through the geometric shapes of death.

This is melting my brain in three dimensions. Neat game but you have to relax your eyes. It’s like one of those posters where you have to sort of relax your eyes and see into the background. I’m trying to fly. Maneuver your ship through increasingly smaller holes in a series of fast‑moving walls and pick up precious fuel cells between walls. Got it. If you successfully maneuver through the stellar fortress you’ll be faced with the power of the warlord’s escape ship. That’s an interesting‑looking bad guy. I haven’t made it that far yet as of this recording. I love how the laser is just dots.

And I get to shoot five of those bowtie‑looking enemies with lasers. It’s actually kind of tricky and then you open up the next section of the game which is like Zaxxon in 3D. Well, except you can’t shoot who made it through one out right into the wall. Here’s the game cartridge, which looks like a normal Vectrex game cartridge except it’s in 3D. And the instruction manual with the storyline that I just dramatically read you.

Hang on to something because it’s about to get funky. Narrow Escape. Whoa. Lots of blinking. I’m still here. Alright. I’m always afraid I’m going to find myself inside Johnny Mnemonic or something. That was a terrible movie. The Lawnmower Man was much better. Back to the hallway, which is faster this time, and there’s enemies attacking me from behind. Not sure what I think about it. Right into the wall.

You can’t really get the effect from this video, but the Vectrex 3D imager gives this game three‑dimensional depth and color. It’s pretty cool. This is my favorite of the 3D games even though it’s extremely difficult. Shows you how to use this thing. Simple controls and a huge score section which you could also use for notes. Why’d they make this tunnel so narrow and then force me to escape from it I wish I could output my brain using an HDMI cable. This does look rather interesting. The thing shot me from behind. How’s that fair

It’s like Star Strike on the Intellivision. Except, well, it’s a lot better than Star Strike on the Intellivision. Well, I killed the alien by crashing into it in three dimensions. My eyeballs. You can’t look away from the screen. Bad things happen. A big thanks once again to my friend Mark from Wixom, Michigan, for letting me play his 3D Narrow Escape. Into the side of the wall. Game over. Again. Ow. The game is expensive, but the lobotomy is free.

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