Pong-a-rama-ding-dong
Entry posted by Guest
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Video Olympics
EDIT: I wanted to mention that I'm actually PLAYING these games, as I go, now. I play most of a week's worth of blogging in one weekend. Yesterday, my son and I actually sat down and went through this cartridge. (We liked Volleyball and Basketball the best, by the way.) This is in contrast to before, where I had played most of the games back in June and writing about them based on notes I had taken back then. END EDIT
Okay, this is PONG to the nth degree. This Atari VCS cartridge offers PONG closure like no one would ever expect. After you play the games on this cartridge you need never worry about what you might've missed in the PONG genre.
First, there's PONG. It's just like you remember, except there's also Robot PONG which is one-player. Then there's Super PONG, Soccer and Foozpong. But wait . . . there's more . . . Hockey, QuadraPONG (the Ultimate Pong), Handball, Volleyball and Basketball.(I am surprised they never went for the obvious joke variants: Hong PONG, King PONG, Son of PONG, etc . . .)
All of these games support four player variants, which is really cool if you've two paddle sets and four able-handed gamers willing to play Pong for the amount of time it takes to go through the 26 different four-player games.The manual explains some of the gameplay twists in the manual. There's Speed which allows a player to add speed to the return ball by pressing the red button as the ball makes contact with the paddle. There's Whammy™ which puts sharper angles on your ball return, just hit that button when the ball hits your paddle. CATCH™ which allows the ball to stick to the paddle while you hold in the button. This allows you to take aim with your return ball. If you don't move slowly while you have it, it will escape. And finally, Jump™, which lets you move your paddle from one position to another very quickly, usually a different level (i.e. near the top of the Volleyball net as opposed to the bottom of the net.) Each of these is pretty cool as long as you haven't played PONG in about a month and for no longer than 15 minutes.
On their own, each of these games can be fun, especially with four players -- because then, you're enjoying the other players as much as you're enjoying the game. However, there is a strict biological limit that gets reached at a certain point. You see, there's only so much PONG any human being can take. This is known as their PONG Tolerance™.
PONG Tolerance™ varies with each individual but you'll find greater PONG Tolerance in an individual that's played less videogames. My Wife™, who doesn't do videogames, has a greater tolerance for PONG than my Son™ has and certainly more than I do. I play a lot of games, so my PONG Tolerance™ is relatively low compared to most human beings. However, I'm also a bit of a Masochist™. So, because my PONG Tolerance is low, I'm more likely to push on, relishing my Discomfort™ and Boredom™.
Hmm™, I'm back to one game a day. I'll do Surround next entry.
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