Jump to content
  • entries
    945
  • comments
    4,956
  • views
    1,220,633

Homebreviews - part 32


Nathan Strum

1,262 views

Ah yes, the Atari 7800... the poster child for "too little, too late". The 7800 had great promise when it was previewed in Electronic Games magazine back in '84, but the industry crash killed it before it even got out the door. By the time it was finally released several years later (to cash in on the success of the NES), nobody took notice, and nobody wanted to take a chance developing titles for it. The 7800's miniscule library eventually was the death knell for the system, at least as far as most people were concerned...

But now there's an active homebrew community for the 7800, and we're starting to see some of the potential titles we missed out on...

Space Invaders
4/5

In Space Invaders (as if you didn't already know...) you control a mobile laser cannon that must blast away at never-ending hordes of alien invaders who are trying to take over your planet. You have shields you can temporarily hide behind, but the aliens' march is relentless, and eventually they'll land and it's game over.

Space Invaders is a great port of the arcade classic for the Atari 7800. The graphics and gameplay are spot-on, and there are the usual wealth of options: invisible invaders, moving shields, faster enemy bombs, etc. The sounds are pretty good, although the 7800 simply can't reproduce the original arcade game's distinctive sound effects. You can change the colors used in the game to mimic different overlays that were used in the arcade cabinets, and the options menu looks like it would have been right at home on the arcade original, but there's no hint of the background artwork that the arcade game featured. There's also a hidden option to use the 2600 version's graphics instead, although they're a bit squashed-looking, and the 2600 sounds aren't used.

If you want Space Invaders on the 7800, this port delivers. However, given the capabilities of the 7800, I kept wishing there was more to it - like the inclusion of Space Invaders Deluxe, or some of the other Taito games of that era like Galaxy Wars or Lunar Rescue. As it is, it's a really good version of Space Invaders, but for $30 it just doesn't seem like quite enough.

Jr. Pac-Man
5/5

Jr. Pac-Man is one of many sequels to Pac-Man, this time featuring Pac-Man's son. The usual group of monsters is in pursuit, and you're still eating dots and power pellets, but the key difference this time is that the maze is much wider than usual, meaning you have a lot more dots to eat, and a lot more ground to cover. Complicating matters are the lack of escape tunnels and the toy bonus items that periodically bounce through the maze. Instead of just benignly hopping around waiting to be eaten, the toys turn normal dots into larger ones that dramatically slow you down (but give you more points), and they'll also destroy your power pellets if you don't get to them in time.

Jr. Pac-Man is an excellent port of the arcade game. The graphics, including the title screen and intermissions are all faithfully reproduced. The sound is very good, although the 7800's limitations are noticeable. The game plays like the original, and is just as mercilessly hard. Fortunately, there are options available to increase Jr.'s speed and give him more lives, and you more of a chance to survive.

Jr. Pac-Man is a solid addition to the growing library of Pac-franchise titles for the 7800. It may be a bit too difficult for the casual gamer, but die-hard Pac-fans who are looking for a serious challenge should check it out.

Super Pac-Man
3/5

Super Pac-Man is yet-another Pac-Man sequel. In this game though, much of what made Pac-Man a successful formula has been stripped away. Instead of having to clear off a whole screen full of dots, you first must eat several keys which unlock doors to a greatly simplified maze, then eat the fruit (or similar items) inside. The four familiar power pellets are still present, but now you also have two additional super pellets, which turn Pac-Man into a massive, invincible version of his former self, capable of smashing through locked doors and running over monsters at super-speed as if they weren't there.

Super Pac-Man for the 7800 is a hard game to review. While it's an excellent port of the arcade game, the game that it's a port of is only mediocre to begin with. All of the changes completely ruin the dynamic of the Pac-formula, and the addition of the super pellets (plus super-speed if you hold down the fire button) make the game ridiculously easy. You don't even have to eat all the keys to beat a level, and with the absence of a maze full of dots to clear, there's very little strategy needed. It's more of a free-for-all than a maze game. Just grab a power pellet, eat some fruit, grab another pellet, kill some monsters, repeat several times, and by the time you get to the sixth pellet, you should have what little maze there is cleared out.

The bonus items have also been changed so that now the point value is just random. If two flashing items happen to match when you pick up a bonus star, you'll get a huge bonus. If not, you'll get just a few hundred points. So your final score may depend less on skill than on luck. There are also bonus rounds during which there are no monsters at all, just items to pick up to pad your score. There's nothing but a clock to beat, no real challenge, and the idea seems tacked on as an afterthought. What's Pac-Man without monsters?

While I can't recommend Super Pac-Man because the underlying gameplay is so flawed, strictly taken on its merits as a port of an arcade game it's very well done. If you're already a fan of Super Pac-Man, then you should pick this up. The gameplay and graphics are faithful to the original, including the intermissions and bonus rounds. The sound suffers from the 7800's limitations, but it's serviceable. However, if you've never played Super Pac-Man and are looking for a good Pac-Man themed game, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

Wasp!
2/5

I'm not sure what to make of Wasp!. Even though it's an original game, it plays more like a non-violent hack of Robotron. While there are no instructions included, the premise is simple enough: collect mushrooms, avoid wasps. And that's it.

You have no weapons, no bonus items, and the graphics never seem to change. You're always collecting the same thing, always pursued by the same five enemies. The difficulty ramps up gradually, but there's no variety to the game - it's just the same thing over and over. Even a change in the colors of the objects would have been welcomed. I don't know if any extra lives can be earned or not (none show up as of 20,000 points), and there are no other game variations that I could find. The graphics are decent but sparse, and the sound is minimal.

Wasp! seems more like a mini-game, or the early beginnings of a game idea, rather than a full-fledged, completed one. It's not that it's bad, it's just that there's not much there. Perhaps if it was part of a compilation I could recommend it, but as it is, Wasp! just doesn't have enough going for it.


Next time: Back to the arcade!

< Previousspacer.gifHomebreviews Indexspacer.gifNext >

0 Comments


Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...