(Insert stupid Blog name here) - Homebreviews - part 11

RSS Bot · March 26, 2007

Despite the fact that it's almost April, any time of the year is gaming season!

Holiday Qb (The 2004 AtariAge Holiday Cart)

4/5

Holiday Qb is an action/puzzle game based on the original 2600 homebrew Qb. The goal is to move sliding pieces around a playfield to match displayed patterns, while collecting bonus items and avoiding enemies. The Holiday aspect of it comes into play with modified graphics reflecting a Holiday theme. Santa Claus, elves, wreaths and other items replace the original Qb graphics. Originally only available as a limited edition in 2004, it was made available for general purchase during the 2006 holiday season.

The original Qb is a fun and challenging game, with great graphics and plenty of replay value. While the holiday version maintains these features, Qb's sound has always been quite lacking, and the holiday version suffers from this as well. Taking the extra time to add a few sound effects or some music would have made this a truly special edition. Still, Holiday Qb is an excellent game, and if you don't already own Qb in some form, this is well worth getting. However, if you already own Qb, this version doesn't really add anything new.

Reindeer Rescue (The 2005 AtariAge Holiday Cart)

5/5

Okay, I'm biased. I designed the graphics in Reindeer Rescue, and even got credited on the title screen. That said, if it weren't a fun game, I wouldn't give it a good review - especially since my name's on it. Fortunately, Bob Montgomery did an excellent job designing and programming Reindeer Rescue, and it is indeed a fun game!

Reindeer Rescue is a side-scrolling platformer, where you make Santa Claus leap over obstacles and collect items in a search for his missing reindeer. As you progress through four different levels - the North Pole, frozen tundra, the suburbs and finally the city - the pace picks up and the terrain becomes trickier to navigate. The whole time you're running out of energy, and must pick up items in order to build it back up.

The levels are very well designed, and offer a lot of replay value. There's more than one way to get through some of the levels, and you may even have to intentionally miss rescuing reindeer at times for maximum points or extra lives. The suburb level is particularly tricky to get through, and the city level is one of the coolest-looking levels on any 2600 game (watch out for the lightning!). The sound is excellent, with seven different, nicely translated Christmas carols (which you can turn off if you're not in the Holiday spirit). Graphics-wise, I'm a little biased, but Bob did a great job creating a game that could pack in so many graphics. The levels are quite large, featuring varied landscapes, different objects to pick up (or avoid), and even some sprites in the distant background just for eye candy.

Most importantly, Reindeer Rescue is fun to play. The controls are responsive and precise, and there's a lot to see and explore in the game. There's also a nice reward if you manage to rescue all of the reindeer and finish the game. Whether it's the holiday season or not, Reindeer Rescue is highly recommended. (And no, I don't get any money if you buy a copy. But Bob does. So buy two.)

Toyshop Trouble (The 2006 AtariAge Holiday Cart)

4/5

In Toyshop Trouble, you're an elf with a mission. A mission to paint toys in Santa's workshop, in time for his big Christmas Eve delivery. But there are a lot of toys, a lot of colors, and each toy must be painted correctly. If that weren't enough, you've got a limited amount of time to meet your quota each day, and every day you have more toys to paint. You'd better be fast - buy accuracy counts too! Santa won't accept any toys that are painted the wrong color. Miss your quota, and it's game over.

The screen shows an overview of a toyshop with several conveyor belts on which toys appear. Before each level, you're shown any new toy to be painted, and how to paint it. Once the level starts, you move the elf around with the joystick, pressing the fire button to run at full speed and apply paint that you've selected from one of several paint buckets. Paint all of the toys in the required time, and you move onto the next level.

Toyshop Trouble is an excellent action game that requires quite a bit of strategy and a good memory. Once you have a dozen different toys on screen at the same time, it's challenging to remember which toy is which color, and to figure how to paint them most efficiently. As you progress further in the game, the action is relentless, and you'll find that even miss-painting a single toy can cost you the game. The graphics are colorful and detailed (I may be a little biased since I designed most of them), and programmer John Payson did an amazing job getting the 2600 to display so many colorful objects all at once, with no flicker. The music is also very well done, with several variations on an original song that sounds like a mix between "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Jingle Bells".

Also included on the cart is a hidden mini-game. I won't tell you how to find it, but it is a nice bonus, and a fun game in its own right. If I had any complaints about Toyshop Trouble, is that the game doesn't end after December 24th. Since the story is that you're helping Santa prepare for his annual trip on Christmas Eve, it doesn't make a lot of sense for the game to continue after that point, starting back up in January at a harder level, and eventually becoming unplayable. In hindsight, when December 24th was cleared, perhaps it would have been better to move from Toyshop Trouble straight into the mini-game (which is a natural follow-up to the main game). As it is, once you've gotten past December 24th, there's not a lot of incentive to keep playing - there are no more goals to achieve, and nothing new to see.

Minor quibbles aside, Toyshop Trouble is an excellent game, which looks and sounds great throughout. The controls are smooth and responsive, and the gameplay is action-packed and highly unique. Released as a limited-edition in 2006, if you have the chance to get a copy, be sure and pick it up.

That's it for this round. Next time... me guzzle spa! :ponder: