Dragster… the epic drag-racing game that swept the nation upon its release on the Atari 2600. The most exciting brand of… oh, who am I kidding? This game is not very good, it’s not very long, and as a whole, the fun is virtually non-existent unless you’re three years old or drunk. Probably both.
The premise of Dragster is as follows; two dragsters race to see who reaches the other end of the screen. Planning on holding that button? Don’t; you’ll blow your engine that way. You’ll have to tap your button to keep the car moving while keeping the engine from overheating. It’s actually pretty inventive gameplay and it makes for good times, but once you really start getting the hang of it, the game ends. And with the experienced gained from the first few playthroughs, future rounds of Dragster will likely last you less than ten seconds. You have a few modes here, but they do little to extent the play time or enjoyment of the game. You’re still racing across the screen; no variations, no extra tracks, nothing to keep this game from collecting dust on a shelf.
I guess that explains why the visual presentation and sound is below par even by Atari 2600 standards. This has to be one of the least visually-appealing games on the system, as the drag racing vehicles look more like the lower half of a black lawnmower than actual cars. When your engine blows, the car melts and that’s it. No exploding pixels, no flying blocks of debris, none of that. I would think that if I were going to buy a game that essentially had ten seconds of gameplay per game, I would expect the game to look good, even by Atari 2600 standards. Alas, this is not to be.
As for the sound effects, they’re mostly tolerable, but not much more than that. Even so, they’re not enough to save Dragster from being a colossal failure.
The game is readily available on the Activision Anthology that was released on PS2 many moons ago and that’s probably the best place for Dragster these days. For all of the many great games Activision had put out on the Atari 2600, this is clearly not one of their better efforts. Anyone looking for a good racer on the 2600 has more than enough options on the system that can be considered better than Dragster. Considering you’re not getting enough bang for your buck with Dragster, it’s definitely not worth the money. Avoid.
BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 2/10 (minimalist graphics)
Sound: 3/10 (tolerable, but not much more than that)
Gameplay: 4/10 (neat concept, doesn’t last long enough to be worthwhile)
Challenge: 3/10 (don’t blow that engine and you’ll be fine)
Replay Value: 1/10 (very little to keep you from playing better games)
Overall: 2/10
dtm666 