Homebreviews - part 27
Entry posted by Nathan Strum
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Many months ago, I teased: Up next: It takes two to tango
This was my intention to finish off the last of the games that I had yet to review for the AtariAge store: Two-Player-Only Games.
The trick was, finding that second player. Most of the people I know who are inclined to play videogames don't live in the area. So that meant going out of town, and hauling an Atari, controllers and carts with me. This past weekend, I finally got around to doing just that.
I went down to my friend Jeff's place in Redondo Beach for the Fourth of July weekend. After an evening of barbecue and fireworks with the family, we hooked up a 7800 and went to work.
So first, a big "thank you" to Jeff for helping me slog through these games. Usually, we dig out the Wii and play Mario Kart with people around the world (which is very cool, by the way), but Jeff's an old school gamer too, and was willing to help out with these reviews.
And anyway, he owed me big-time for dragging me off to see The Flintstones. (There's an hour and-a-half out of my life I'll never get back.) So now we're even.
With that out of the way, I could finally write new reviews for three two-player-only games: Mental Kombat, Sea Battle and Swordfight. We also played the two-player options of several other games, as well.
I took the opportunity to go back and update the reviews for Bee•Ball and Cold War (from Stella's Stocking), since I didn't have the chance to review those games with two players before.
I didn't add anything about the two-player modes in Sync, because the problem there is you really need two players of equal skill to have any chance of that working - otherwise it ends up just being one player dominating, and the other being frustrated. Both players will have had to practice Sync a lot, and that just wasn't possible here. Sync is a great game, and I'm sure under the right circumstances the two-player modes would be a lot of fun, but it already got a 5/5 even without them.
We also had the chance to play Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel (for the 7800) in two-player modes, however that didn't change my reviews any, since I'd already (correctly) surmised that the lack of the "tethered" mode in Space Duel was its weak point. The "competition" mode in each game ends up just being a 30 second slug-fest as you try to kill the other guy off as fast as possible, and the "team" mode doesn't add much of anything to either game, since you're still basically just shooting space junk (not that there's anything wrong with that 
).
Mental Kombat
1/5
Mental Kombat is a two-player-only game comprised of a checkerboard-like playfield. Each player takes turns turning the squares either red (player 1) or yellow (player 2) one square at a time. You can only change a square adjacent to a blinking cursor, and you can't use your turn to undo the last player's turn, so there are only three maximum positions you can move to at any time (and even fewer along the borders). If you can turn four or more contiguous squares to your color, your opponent loses "energy". If he loses enough energy, then you win the game.
Since Mental Kombat is a two-player-only game, you have no way to practice the game without a willing opponent. In my experience, that meant both of us had to learn the game at the same time, which meant neither of us were any good at it, and had no opportunity to really figure out any sort of strategies for it. We spent most of our time just trying to figure out the idiosyncrasies of the game as we went along.
Things didn't start off very well, as we were thrown off by the odd game option of having both players' moves controlled by a single joystick. Only I could move, and my opponent couldn't do anything. Admittedly, this is something that is in the manual, and eventually a flip of a difficulty switch put us into the correct mode so we could each use our own controller, but it is really counter-intuitive to typical Atari 2600 games to have to pass the controller back and forth. Also, if you should want to play against yourself using a single joystick (the only way you can practice), there's an infuriating lag between moves. Again, this is intentional, and is mentioned in the manual, but it's something else that just doesn't jibe with other 2600 games - it feels like the game is fighting against you. We were also frustrated that once you moved the cursor - that was it. You're stuck with that move. A far better approach would be to let the player move wherever they wanted, then "set" the move with the fire button (a common approach in 2600 board games). If speedier play was the intent, this could have been made optional (and a much better use for that aforementioned difficulty switch).
After all that, was figuring out exactly what was going on in the game. The idea is that you move the cursor in a direction, and the square you move the cursor onto swaps color with where you were. So if you move onto a yellow square, then that square becomes the cursor (which isn't either color), and where the cursor was, is now yellow. Follow me? Well, it's a pretty simple concept, but in practice, it's a little weird, because you're moving squares of either color at any given time - not just your own. So while you're assigned a color as a player, you can both move any of the squares on the game board. Sometimes your move doesn't actually change anything - since if you move from one square to the another that are the same color, nothing changes. Maybe this is something that would work better on a real game board with marbles. On the 2600, the whole thing is rather boring.
Now I'll admit that for some people this may make for some interesting gameplay, or strategies, or possibly even fun. However, neither of us had the patience or enough interest in the game to sit there and try to figure out any nuances it might have had. By pure accident one of us finally managed to win a game, although neither of us was really certain how it happened, nor did we care. The graphics are just squares, and there's practically no sound in the game whatsoever, except for a few blips. It seems the most time and effort went into coming up with elaborate title screen graphics. If more work had gone into making the game more fun to play, rewarding to win, or possible to practice against, then maybe Mental Kombat might have been more than just a clever name.
Sea Battle
4/5
Sea Battle is a lost gem amongst the seemingly endless stream of unreleased prototypes that keep resurfacing. Two players each command an island at opposite ends of the screen. The goal of the game is to launch ships from your harbor, and get one of them into your opponent's harbor. If you succeed - you win the game. (Apparently, your enemies are easily intimidated.)
You begin by launching up to four ships at a time (choosing from three each of battleships, destroyers, PT-boats and submarines). You can choose any of the ships at any time, and move them amongst the islands on screen, setting traps for your opponent and trying to outmaneuver his fleet. At this point, only you know which ships you've launched, since they're only shown as blips on a radar screen.
When two enemy ships get near each other, the screen "zooms in" to Battle Mode, where you finally get a look at what kind of ship you're up against, and the two of you can battle to the death (there's no running away, here). Each ship has its own strengths and weakness in terms of weapons, vulnerability and speed. You also carry existing damage to subsequent battles, so if you can't sink one of your opponents ships in one encounter, go after it a second time and it will be easier to take down. But beware of navigation hazards - if you hit an island, you can become shipwrecked!
Sea Battle is a pretty remarkable game, which involves both strategy and action. It takes a few minutes to get up and running, but once you do, it's quite a lot of fun. The graphics are well-done, and the controls are smartly implemented. One minor complaint is that there should be two small instruction cards included (one for each player) showing the ship types and how to select them, so you don't have to keep passing the manual back and forth while learning the game. Even then, it only takes a few minutes to get the hang of the game, and the potential variety and depth in the gameplay will keep you coming back for more. The only major downside to Sea Battle is that it requires two players to play it (which is the reason M-Network never released it in the first place, and why I'm giving it only a 4 out of 5). But if you can find a second player willing to sit down and play it, then Sea Battle is one battle that's well-worth fighting.
Swordfight
2/5
An unreleased M-Network prototype, Swordfight (which requires two players) features two large figures on floating platforms, swinging "laser swords" at each other. Hit your opponent enough times, and you win. Simple enough.
If anything though, Swordfight is too simple. While it has decent graphics, the controls are under-utilized. While you can swing and block, you are limited to "left", "overhead", and "right". The problem is, you're looking at the characters from the side - so "left" and "right" are effectively wasted. Far better would have been "high", "middle", and "low" swings and blocks. The fire button is used to advance and retreat (which works well enough), but since the "left" and "right" attacks look pretty much the same and its difficult to predict how to block your opponent (since the motions are so limited), most of the time you'll just find yourself flailing wildly at your opponent until he dies (or you do).
Swordfight doesn't keep track of scores, so you can't play multiple rounds and keep track of who's ahead. The lack of a one-player option also severely limits the playability of the game. There's no way to really practice except with another player, and the lack of any progression (through different rounds or difficulty levels) really gives the whole thing a very unfinished feel. While the manual claims the game is indeed finished, Swordfight almost seems like a game engine in search of an idea, or maybe a particular movie license which had been locked up by another game company. With limited controls and no depth to speak of, the novelty of beating up your opponent with a light sab... I mean, "laser sword", wears off pretty quickly.
Up next: The review that nobody thought would happen!
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