Category: GameFAQs Reviews

CENTIPEDE is a well-known 1980 arcade classic from Atari, where you have to fend off against the eponymous Centipede and its hordes of minions. It’s a tremendously enjoyable affair, became a hit, and was eventually ported to several home video gaming systems. The version were going to be looking at today is the Atari 7800 iteration and this is actually a pretty good port of Centipede on the Atari 7800.

Of course, this isn’t a perfect port in regards to gameplay; the original Centipede arcade game used a trackball as its main input for controlling your bug blaster thing, whereas on the Atari 7800, you were using the stock 7800 joystick or equivalent controller and there’s no trackball support for this version of Centipede. For the most part, control in Centipede is a pretty solid and simple affair. No real complaints in this department. It’s really no different from almost any other home conversion of Centipede you’d find on the market. It works, it’s responsive, it suits your needs just fine. Nothing more to add on that count.

Gameplay is pretty much the same familiar Centipede; clear away the mushrooms and kill off the Centipede segments for points, as well as spiders and other critters looking to make life difficult for you. Nothing new or different in that regard; you also have difficulty select in the grand tradition of Atari 7800 homeports, so if you’re having a bit of trouble, turn it down a notch. Nobody will know…

The game has some rather nice graphics and closely matches the visuals of the arcade original, save from minor rough edges… but still, it looks pretty nice. This is different from what was done the 7800 port of Asteroids, where the traditional vector-based space rocks were replaced with actual well-rounded space rocks… with craters… and smooth animation. But Centipede looks really good. Just about the only improvement made to the game is that everything looks a tad bigger – probably to fill the screen considering the arcade’s vertical screen doesn’t lend itself too well to horizontal home televisions, but it looks good. I can’t really complain.

As for the sound, it has all the sounds of Centipede and it sounds pretty good. Not much more to say that that; I’ve got no issues with the sound.

It goes without saying that Centipede is an enjoyable yet challenge arcade shooter. Easy to pick up, simple to understand, and yet difficult to conquer. The Atari 7800 version of Centipede does a superb job of bringing the action, overcoming the lack of a trackball controller with its solid traditional controls. This is just another in a long line of excellent arcade conversions on the Atari 7800, which was one of the main strengths of the system. Centipede is a great game, loads of fun, worth a look if you own a 7800.

PROS:
– Solid conversion of Centipede with multiple difficulty settings.
– Controls well with the stock joystick or gamepad

CONS:
– No trackball support

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

Fun for a while… but not much else.

This is sort of an odd thing because my first exposure to Hat Trick was not the original arcade game, but rather the odiously flawed conversion on the Atari 7800. To make a long story short, the game boasted choppy animation, flawed controls, and was basically outclassed by other hockey games available in 1987.

The original Hat Trick arcade game, which I did play once or twice during a road trip several years ago, is a far cry from that 7800 conversion by a considerable margin… which should come as no surprise considering an arcade board should be more capable than a home video game system.

Continue reading “GameFAQS Review – Hat Trick (Arcade)”

Originally developed by John Newcomer and released to arcades in 1982, Joust is one of those games that I can honestly say is an all-time favorite of mine. I never played the game in its original arcade format; my first experience with Joust was on the Atari 7800 ProSystem and even today, it’s perhaps my favorite incarnation of Joust ever – so I figure “Why not take a look at this classic game on the 7800?” So here we are.

Now I’ve played a number of different versions of Joust; the Game Boy Color version, the emulated version that’s on the Midway Arcade Treasures disc, the version that plays on the Williams’ Arcade’s Greatest Hits cartridge for Super NES, and even the NES version of Joust, which I don’t particularly like all that much… but still, I picked up that version because… well, I like Joust… even if I’m not particularly any good at it. I mean, I do alright for the most part, but it’s a case of sometimes I do good and sometimes I do bad… but despite that, I have a good time with it and when all is said and done, isn’t that the most important thing about a video game? Having fun?

Now if you have never played Joust, then you’re going to Hell. But in any case, the object is to clear the screen of other bird riders by knocking them off their birds with either your lance or your bird’s bottom, all the while preventing the same thing from happening to you. Your main control scheme is the joystick to guide your bird and a flap button to take to the skies. Pressing the button rapidly causes you to fly faster, but makes it more difficult to slow down. This gives the game a sense of momentum that you have to take into account when planning your attack and one of the things that makes Joust a tough game to get into. But that makes it all the more satisfying.

Now as you progress, your opponents will be a tad more aggressive, platforms will disintegrate from sight and give you less cover, and you’ll even have to fend off against the fearsome Pterodactyl who will pick yo off unless you are lucky enough to slay the beast. Every fifth wave is an Egg wave, where you collect eggs before they hatch. At times, you’ll have Survival Waves, where you get a bonus if you survive a wave, and every 20,000 points nets you an extra life. If you play really well early on, you can accumulate lives before you eventually lose them all in the later waves… see? Good times had by all.

The 7800 was given a fantastic port of Joust, retaining almost everything that made the game a fun experience in the arcade. The control is responsive and pretty easy to work with. The gameplay is fast and furious with virtually no instances of slowdown or lag. All the little touches of the arcade game, the survival waves, the little quotations, the bird flying off when you kill its rider, Buzzard Bait, that sort of thing. Retained rather nicely. Nothing has been altered for the sake of alterations; this is Joust in perhaps its purest form on the 7800 and it plays brilliantly.

You have a choice of four different difficulty settings which is a nice handy option for those who find the default difficulty to be a little overwhelming or perhaps underwhelming. Although, at times, I often found myself performing extremely well in the Expert skill setting, sometimes even better than if I were playing on the Novice setting… strange, that. And the visuals in this 7800 port of Joust is actually pretty damn impressive. In fact, barring the faded colors and blocky nature of the graphics, the game almost looks near-arcade-perfect if you squint your eyes enough. It’s just that good looking.

Just about the only thing that’s missing from Joust on the 7800 is the arcade game’s fancy typeface, which is replaced with the generic blocky font found in most games on 7800, but this isn’t a huge loss and doesn’t take anything away from the game. The sound itself is actually pretty good on the 7800, somewhat resembling the sounds of the arcade original, albeit in a more degraded format. But still this is pretty solid stuff, audio-wise. I’ve no complaints in this regard.

Out of all the individual releases of Joust among the 8-bit systems, the Atari 7800 seems to be the best one of the bunch. What it lacks in sound quality and fonts, it makes up for with graphics which closely resemble the arcade game, fluid control, multiple difficulty levels, and gameplay that stays true to what made Joust a great arcade game. If you wanted a game that perfectly sold the Atari 7800’s strength in bringing home top-notch arcade conversions, look no further than Joust. It’s perhaps one of the few games that makes it worth owning an Atari 7800 ProSystem and, barring any of the compilation versions or Xbox live iterations of recent years, this is probably the version to get. A very good game. If you haven’t played it, you’re missing out on something great. Well worth the time.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 10/10 (Close to arcade perfect mimicry, no flicker, no problem)
Sounds: 10/10 (Closely matches the sounds of the arcade, impressive considering the sound processing)
Gameplay: 10/10 (Controls work wonders, gameplay true to the arcade original, tons of fun)
Challenge: 10/10 (Selectable skill setting so any player can get into it, solid learning curve, simple to get into)
Replay Value: 10/10 (Loads of fun to be had with this game, even better with a friend)

OVERALL: 10/10

I’ll be honest here; I had no preconceptions or expectations going into Legend of Kunoichi when I had downloaded it. It’s a fairly inexpensive piece of software – being that it’s part of the PSP Mini line of cheap downloadable titles – and I figured, “Hey, cheap software that I can afford. This can’t be all that bad, can it?”

And for what it is, it’s not all that bad. It’s just not enough.

Legend of Kunoichi is essentially Whack-A-Mole with ninjas. The main goal is to toss hammers at ninjas while allowing your Shogun leader to escape their menacing wrath, which apparently involves popping out of the floor. You do this by pressing the button that corresponds with the hole that the ninja is popping out of and must do this until ninjas catch up with your Shogun or until your Shogun escapes. You’ll have to be quick to whack those moles… er, I mean ninjas before they escape and you have to be cautious as to not whack the pink ninjas wearing wooden helmets, as they’ll deflect the hammers back at you and stun you momentarily. You have two difficulty settings (NORMAL and HARD) and your score appears on a Rankings chart (nothing that goes online, I’m afraid).

And that’s all there is to it. Really, that’s the whole game. No extra modes, no real substance of any kind to be found anywhere in the game, and while there is a difficulty setting per se, Legend of Kunoichi is not all that difficult once you get the hang of it. It’s just Whack-A-Mole… except with Ninjas and not much else. Just goes to show that ninjas can’t make everything awesome… and that is shameful.

The overall presentation is not even worth mentioning; the graphics are somewhat of a step-up from what you find on a Playstation-One, but still look pretty weak and generic. You have an optional retro-screen which adds scanlines, but that doesn’t make the game any more retro; it just looks slightly darker and if I wanted darker, I use the backlight function on the PSP to lower the lighting. The sound is also pretty generic and repetitive. Nothing special.

For $2.99 plus tax, you’re certainly getting a quick game in Legend of Kunoichi. Unfortunately, that’s about all you’re getting in Legend of Kunoichi. This is a purchase that should only be made if you have some spare change laying around and don’t mind blowing it on a quick time-waster. Don’t get me wrong; Legend of Kunoichi does the job well and it’s certainly good for a quick game or two. But given that there are many other viable options for the PSP out there even in the Mini line, this game won’t see much play all that often. Unless you can spare the change, don’t bother with this one.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 4/10 (barely above PS1 levels, rather bland looking)
Sound: 4/10 (overall generic and repetitive, nothing special)
Gameplay: 4/10 (controls work fine, but gameplay is slow and chunky)
Challenge: 3/10 (offers two levels of difficulty, but it’s honestly not all that difficult)
Replay Value: 2/10 (extremely barebones even for a PSP Mini Release)

OVERALL: 4/10

Demon Attack was a subject of legal debate back in the day when Atari sued Imagic due to the alleged similarities between Demon Attack and Phoenix, a Taito arcade game ported to the Atari 2600 by Atari. Maybe some people might notice the similarities between the two, but I never did. Unless the similarity is they’re both space shooters… oh well, in any case, the two settled and Demon Attack would become a favorite… and for good reason because it’s a great game.

Demon Attack is one of those childhood favorites that I used to play constantly back in the days when I had my Atari 7800 (the system nobody got despite have some decent titles and backwards compatibility with the 2600 library) and even today is still a generally enjoyable game that follows an all-too-simple-and-familiar premise; aliens or rather “demons” are attacking you and you have to destroy them all to move on to the next level. Do well clearing the wave of demons and you earn an extra life (and this will happen often during the initial stages of the game.)

It’s a fairly simple premise that is rather easy to follow, but as you progress farther into the game, the demons become more difficult and more cunning, introducing a couple new abilities such as splitting into two smaller demons when you shoot them as well as streaming lasers that follow their position, making them increasingly more difficult to dodge. It’s a nice way to vary it up.

Graphically speaking, Demon Attack is fairly good looking. Any time an Atari video game pulls off a gradient background in the form of anything – be it a sky or in this case, the floor – I’m easily swayed to say it looks good. Fortunately, the variety of demons you encounter in this game look decisively menacing in this 2600 format and don’t come off as choppy in terms of animation despite having few frames. It’s certainly helps that the pulsing ambient background noise helps to add to the menacing atmosphere of the overall game, with the tempo rising as more demons are slain.

Now like most 2600 titles, Demon Attack has a variety of alternate modes. Usually, these make the games more difficult or some other curve ball variation. The most intriguing aspect is the 2-player alternating mode, where control of the ship alternates between the two players at pre-determined intervals. It’s a mode that keeps the tension up as both players have to be on the ready once they gain control of the ship, lest they be destroyed by the demons’ attack. It’s actually a nice little feature that I wouldn’t mind seeing in more modern games today.

Overall, if you have an Atari 2600 or 7800 for that matter, enjoy space shooters, and haven’t had the chance to play Demon Attack yet, then I highly suggest you do so. It’s fairly cheap these days and it’s a ton of fun. If you don’t have an Atari, the game is also available on the Activision Anthology set that was released for Playstation-2 several years ago. Either way, Demon Attack is a solid space shooter and a great time to be had by all.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 8/10 (gradient floor and menacing demons are top notch)
Sound: 8/10 (nice demonic-sounding ambient background noise, individual effects also decent)
Gameplay: 9/10 (classic shooter format with some neat 2-player alternating formats)
Challenge: 7/10 (demons adapt with new techniques every few levels, keeping the game fresh and challenging)
Replay Value: 5/10 (if you’re into classic shooters, you can’t go wrong)

OVERALL: 8/10