Category: Written Reviews

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600 video computer system recreates exactly one scene from the movie it’s named after: the Battle of Hoth. In said battle, there were roughly three or four Imperial AT-AT walkers swatting down a bunch of snowspeeders defending the Rebel base. In the game, it’s one lone snowspeeder (with multiple lives) defending the Rebel base against an almost limitless supply of AT-AT walkers – apparently the Galactic Empire had a bigger budget in this universe. And unlike the movie, this speed has no harpoons or force powers in this game, but a single laser cannon of downing an AT-AT in roughly forty hits.

Exciting…

The Empire Strikes Back lacks any semblance of what people would consider sophisticated graphics. This is obviously understandable since we’re talking about the Atari 2600, but at the very least, you can make out the mountains in the background/foreground as well as the imperial walkers that magically change colors as you wear down its armor. And that gray thing you control is a fair approximation of a snowspeeder, so at the very least, the game has the details right if they’re not heavily detailed.

The sound is your usual offering of blips, beeps, and static noises that the Atari 2600 was known for, but on occasion, you’ll hear a fairly nice rendition of the Star Wars fanfare. Whenever you hear this play, you’ll be granted invincibility against the fearsome power of the AT-AT. Which means your chances of surviving a head-on assault against a walker are that much better…

…a good thing since a head-on assault is the stupidest thing you could pursue. Because while AT-ATs take roughly forty hits to die, you only take two or three. This means having to go for hit-and-run tactics quite often unless a weak point appears on the walker for you to exploit. This doesn’t happen often, but when it appears, all it takes is one well-aimed shot to take down the beast. Oh, so satisfying.

And then you move on to the next walker and repeat the whole process again. Once you’ve killed your third or fourth walker and begin to understand the mechanics and pattern of the game, the boredom starts to kick in and that’s when you go for a beer and get drunk to retain the feeling of fun and excitement when you’ve just obliterated your tenth AT-AT in a seemingly endless supply of them.

And that’s the thing. The game never ends; there’re no extra levels, and no other means of extending the game beyond this basic premise of slaying AT-ATs. The game ends three ways; when your last life is exhausted, when one of the walkers reach the rebel base, or when you decide to call it a day and shut the game off.

It seems like I’m harping on the game quite a bit in regards to its gameplay, but I actually enjoyed ESB. I found it to be a fun game. But that’s just me. While I have no problem shooting down AT-ATs for thirty minutes without end and find it to be an enjoyable activity, I do recognize that the overall monotony of the concept can turn a few gamers off. With that said, though, this is a solid addition to your Atari 2600 library and is one of the better Star Wars games on the console. There’s not much substance here to keep it from being a quick play, but play in moderation and you’ll be fine.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 7/10 (simple shapes resemble the vehicles they represent)
Sound: 7/10 (your usual 2600 sounds plus a nifty Star Wars fanfare)
Gameplay: 8/10 (solid controls, easy-to-understand, but gets old fairly fast)
Challenge: 5/10 (once you learn the patterns, it’s not too tough)
Replay Value: 2/10 (good for quick plays and nothing more)

OVERALL: 7/10

Mortal Kombat was a popular arcade game that eventually got some home ports. The Super Nintendo version was the best-looking one, but is generally considered to be a subpar port due to some altered gameplay and the lack of the blood and violence that made the original arcade game famous. The Genesis version was the low-resolution, tinny-sounding version that included the gore as a hidden feature and ended up selling more than the SNES version. And then there were the handheld versions for Game Boy and Game Gear… the less said about those two, the better.

And so, some time later, Acclaim released a version of Mortal Kombat for the Sega CD system. Advertised as being Bigger, Better, Louder, and Meaner, the Sega CD version promised to have an arcade-quality soundtrack, solid graphics, and the bloody action you’d expect from a Mortal Kombat game. Did it deliver? Well…

Continue reading “GameFAQs Review – Mortal Kombat (Sega CD)”

No need to mince words – I don’t have to tell you that Atari really screwed up when they ported the popular and excellent arcade classic Pac-Man over to the Atari 2600. The legend goes that Atari received a incomplete prototype of the game to test out and was so excited that they released the game as is. The end result was one of the contributing factors to what would eventually be known as the Great North American Video Game Crash of 1983. While the game did sell, the people who bought it generally hated the game and word of mouth eventually slowed the game’s sales to the point of nothing.

Now how about the game itself?

Well, Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 thankfully has the same premise as its arcade counterpart. Your main objective is to clear the single maze of dots (er, blocks) and avoid the ghosts that are chasing you. On each corner of the screen, there is a power pellet that you can gobble up and turn the ghosts blue for a brief period, allowing you to eat them for points. At least, that’s the theory. Unfortunately, the flickering of ghosts is what makes the game more difficult than it deserves to be, because sometimes it’s hard to tell when they’re blue or not. Also, they tend to be hard to see as they seem to blend in nicely with the blue background of this puke-colored maze. Everything tends to have a blocky appearance (as is the case with a majority of 2600 titles), but at least Pac-Man somewhat resembles a circle… but that’s about it.

The sounds are decidedly ear-grinding and the game is best played with the mute function of your television activated. Seriously, I couldn’t imagine anyone who could have sit through this game having to listen to those awful, awful sound effects. Not to mention that none of the jingles in this game resemble the familiar Pac-Man jingle from the arcade game, which every other home port has gotten right. I clearly don’t get that.

As for the gameplay itself… well, you control Pac-Man with your joystick, you eat dots, you avoid ghosts… I suppose I could give them a bit of credit. They managed to get the core gameplay mechanics right and the controls are actually fairly responsive for the most part, so the game isn’t a total loss. I mean, it’s pretty playable and considering there weren’t any better ports available, I suppose this could have served as a decent offering of Pac-Man.

But now that there are better ports… there’s really no reason to play this one now is there? You could probably find this one cheap if you’re actively looking for it, but even then… what’s the point? Every console in the world has at least one version of Pac-Man in some form or another these days and almost all of them are better than this. Just get one of those instead.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 3/10 (unappealing color scheme doesn’t help the subpar blocky graphics – flickery sprites doesn’t help the cause)
Sound: 1/10 (the Mute button is your friend… trust me)
Gameplay: 4/10 (just like Pac-Man… almost, somewhat, not quite, but the gameplay is somewhat similar)
Challenge: 5/10 (moderate difficulty made worse with flickering, indistinguishable ghosts)
Replay Value: 2/10 (almost none present)

OVERALL: 2/10

So, there’s a new Castlevania game coming out in 2010. It’s called Lords of Shadow… it’s been in development for quite some time, having had a trailer shown in 2008 without any association with the Castlevania franchise. From the looks of the trailer, the game looks really, really good and promises to be a true successor to the Castlevania games of old.

Now what does this have to do with Castlevania Judgment?

Well, Judgment was released in 2008 and as mentioned, Lords of Shadow was originally presented via a quick trailer at a game show without the Castlevania name. The general belief is that Konami didn’t want the new game – which is essentially a reboot of the franchise – to upstage Judgment, which was the newest Castlevania offering on console systems (not counting the newest DS release, Order of Ecclessia). There’s probably a good reason for that… because if it had, people would skip over Judgment and not fall into the trap of believing this to be a good game.

The general premise of Judgment is a huge departure from the rest of the series – rather than a 3D action game or another 2D Metroidvania, this incarnation on the Wii is a one-on-one fighting game that pits various heroes and villains of various Castlevania games against each other. In essence, it’s a Castlevania All-Stars game and it seems like an interesting concept. However, the execution is gravely flawed.

Continue reading “GameFAQs Review – Castlevania Judgment (Wii)”

It seems that a lot of people looked past the Atari 7800 Pro System back in the day to play the more popular Nintendo Entertainment System. While there are a lot of great arcade conversions on the 7800, the system didn’t have a huge library and the games simply weren’t as varied or as deep as those found on the NES or even the Sega Master System, for that matter. Being that it was my first-ever video game system, I have many fond memories of the Atari 7800 ProSystem and have enjoyed a many great games on the system during the short time I’ve had the system.

One of those great games… isn’t Karateka.

Essentially a port of a supposedly great computer game (that I’ve never played – hence the use of the word “supposedly”) developed by the same person who would later conjure up the infinitely-more-popular Prince of Persia, Karateka completely and utterly fails on the Atari 7800, lacking any of the fun, polish, or excitement of other games on the system, let alone anywhere else. Never has the simple story of “young blond karate master fights through numerous baddies to save the princess from the evil karate master” felt so insipidly uninteresting or broken than it does in this game.

Starting up the system, you’re immediately greeted with a simple glowing title over a static black background while an annoying tune plays further proving that the 7800’s sound processing is beyond mediocre. When the first screen of the game doesn’t get you excited or even intrigued from the get-go, all hope is usually lost on the game. This isn’t always the case, as a bad title screen isn’t the definitive barometer to the quality of the actual game. In this case, however, the plain boring title screen is an omen to what awaits you, as you’ll be greeted with a similar screen and annoying tune every time you die. And you will die often. And while the sound effects in Karateka aren’t majorly offensive, they don’t really do anything to enhance the gaming experience. The 7800’s sound processing is generally crummy, but there are games that make good use of what little the system had. This isn’t one of them.

The graphics in Karateka aren’t at all interesting. The backgrounds seem good enough (even if they are a bit simple in nature) and there is some nice scrolling of the foreground here and there (the only thing that scrolls in this game, I’m afraid), but the actual characters are terrible. It seems like this game only has five main characters in the entire game; the player character, the main villain, the princess you have to rescue, the occasional bird that picks off energy, and the enemy opponent, who simply shows up again and again wearing the same pastel outfit only in different colors in each round. And here I thought Mortal Kombat went crazy with the palette-swapped ninjas, but this game is an even worse offender.

The main issue of Karateka and the thing that truly destroys this game is the gameplay; more specifically, the absolutely crippled controls where you’re supposed to press a button while wiggling with the joystick to perform a variety of punches and/or kicks at different altitudes. I’m not sure how the computer versions handled this, but I’m pretty sure they worked better than this. Not helping matters is the poor collision detection, as certain blows will miss completely even though they’re touching the target. Likewise, certain blows that miss the target by a yard will still register as a hit. This kind of programming mess makes what could have been a decently above-average one-on-one fighter an almost agonizing experience.

The sad truth is that Karateka, somehow dubbed a Super Game Cartridge, does not work well on a console that does not come with a keyboard. Like I said, I’ve never played the original computer version, but after playing this 7800 travesty as well as sampling the NES version (which isn’t all that better, I’m afraid), I think I’d want to stay away from any game with the name Karateka on the cover. The 7800 version of Karateka is not only the worst port of the game on any console, but is also one of the worst games in the Atari 7800 library. Even if you enjoyed the computer game or even if you’re an avid Atari collector, there is no reason whatsoever for you to own this game unless you need something to smash with a hammer or you’re in need of a good hockey puck.

Seriously, you want a good karate game on the 7800? Go buy Ninja Golf. Now THAT’S an excellent game. Stay away from this game.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 3/10 (okay backgrounds, terrible animation, all in all unappealing even by 7800 standards)
Sound: 2/10 (annoyingly bad tunes, sound effects are meh)
Gameplay: 1/10 (mediocre controls and poor collision detection cripple the game)
Challenge: 6/10 (overcoming the controls and other flaws yields a moderate challenge)
Replay Value: 1/10 (can’t imagine why you’d want to play this)

OVERALL: 1/10

One of the early arcade classics of the early 1980s, Pac-Man is practically an institution in classic arcade gaming and is a popular franchise in its own right. We’ve all played it, we all know about it, and so there’s really no reason to go into the history of the whole deal. Most Atari gamers are also aware of the poor translation of Pac-Man that their beloved Atari 2600 received and make no mistake, this was a poor port by every extent of the word… although I have to admit, it’s not as terrible as most people perceived, but I digress.

Eventually, Atari learned their lesson and gave 2600 owners a decent (read: much improved) port of Ms. Pac-Man and then later ported Jr. Pac-Man over to the console in 1984. Of course, by the time the game rolled around in 1987, Nintendo came along and dominated the market. In fact, chances are few people got the chance to play this game. And that’s a shame because this game is actually very good and the best of the three… yes, even better than Ms. Pac-Man.

Jr. Pac-Man follows the same formula as its predecessors; as the junior of the Pac family, you have to clear the maze of dots while avoiding the ghosts. You can still collect power pellets to turn ghosts blue so you can eat them and you can still collect the bouncing toys that appears on occasion. It’s pretty standard fare, except for the fact that the maze is taller (wider in the arcade original) and that toys will make dots fat, causing Junior to slow down somewhat when he eats them. These are a couple minor changes, but they really change up the gameplay for the most part, especially when compared to Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.

Graphically speaking, this is typical 2600 quality – generally blocky maze background and very crude sprites. However, as crude as the sprites may be, they at least resemble the Jr Pac-Man (with spinning propeller hat – nice touch) and ghosts… and the toys aren’t too shabby either. The sound in this game is also fairly decent along with a nice little start-up jingle that is pleasing to the ears.

One thing I’ve noticed is that Junior plays a little faster than previous Pac outings and that may add to the overall challenge a bit. You can alter the number of ghosts that appear if you so desire and you can also select the maze to play in. There’re seven mazes in all and you don’t repeat any of them until you’ve played them all – unlike Ms. Pac-Man, which had four mazes but required you to play one maze a few times before moving on to the next… or Pac-Man which had one single solitary maze.

Overall, this seems to be a fun little game and a top-notch version of an arcade game that you’ll most likely never see a re-release of ever again due to its dubious status as an unauthorized Pac-Man release. For an Atari 2600 game, it’s actually pretty impressive what they were able to pull off here and I recommend this game to anyone looking for a solid game on the classic woodgrain Atari.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 6/10 (typical blocky graphics that somewhat resembles Pac-Boy and ghosts – not bad, actually)
Sound: 9/10 (a few blips and beeps – nice jingle that doesn’t sound offensive.)
Gameplay: 8/10 (traditional Pac formula augmented with new larger mazes and a couple extra bonuses)
Challenge: 7/10 (good variety of mazes, game does seem faster than previous Pac outings – hence a good challenge)
Replay Value: 7/10 (good number of options present, as replayable as any Pac-Man)

OVERALL: 7/10

A bit of a revelation here: the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong was the very first version of Donkey Kong I’ve ever played as a kid and I’ve enjoyed it somewhat. Eventually, I’ve played the NES version via a foreign multicart that a friend of mine used to have and I found that to be a much better game. To date, I have never played the Donkey Kong arcade original, but all the subsequent versions of DK I’ve played (from the Atari 7800 version to the spectacular remake on the original Game Boy) seemed to be decent ports and better games than what was offered on the good ol’ woodgrain VCS.

So going back to this version of Donkey Kong, I find that this is a fairly underwhelming version of the game, but otherwise it has the basics down. While there are only two different screens in the game – most home ports have three while the arcade has four – they are fairly similar or at the very least approximate to what you would have in the original game. The barrel stage still has slope platforms and you still have to pick off the bolts on the second stage with the platforms and fireballs. Once you beat the second stage, the game loops and that’s it. I’ve gone through seven loops at one point and noticed no real increase in difficulty and as far as I know, no means of increasing the difficulty. So the replay value on this is extremely low unless you want to see how far you can go (or stay awake).

Graphically speaking… well, the game undeniably looks like crap. Yeah, I know it’s the Atari 2600 and the hardware is rather primitive for the time, but I’ve played a few games on the system that look great and plays beautifully and, given the time and effort, some impressive pieces of software can be done on the system. Donkey Kong, regrettably, isn’t one of them. You’ll no doubt recognize Mario, but Donkey Kong? I guess you could use your imagination and pretend it’s a gorilla, but he looks more like a naked bald caveman thumping his chest constantly.

The sound is also fairly subpar; it’s your typical Atari-quality sound effects and not one of them is particularly impressive. On the bright side, however, controls are fairly decent and responsive and what little gameplay is left is actually fairly enjoyable, but ultimately lacking compared to other versions.

Overall, Coleco pulled off a fair, but not good port of the Donkey Kong game to the Atari 2600. Given what could have been done on the 2600, you certainly can’t expect a perfect arcade port or even a port as decent as the one on NES, but given that there were truly amazing games on the good ol’ woodgrain that look and play better than this, you can’t help but feel disappointed. It’s an okay game to add to the collection if you can find it cheap enough or if you want to relive old memories, but anyone looking for a good version of Donkey Kong to sink their teeth into are better off looking elsewhere.

BREAKDOWN
Graphics: 3/10 (Jumpman/Mario looks fine, the rest of the graphics look terrible – Donkey Kong looks like crap)
Sound: 3/10 (sounds like Atari – best compliment I can give the audio here)
Gameplay: 6/10 (only two levels, but controls fine for the most part)
Challenge: 4/10 (once you memorize the patterns, this becomes a cakewalk)
Replay Value: 2/10 (almost no reason to come back to this game other than for nostalgia value)

OVERALL: 4/10