Intellivision Reviews A-E

Although the original Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) "board game" is designed to be played with paper and dice, it's a natural fit for the world of video games. Its randomized encounters, tedious mapping, and turn-based combat practically beg to be computerized. Many old video games tried to capture the D&D formula with varying degrees of success, but this Intellivision gem practically nailed it. A fast-paced, easy-to-play adventure, AD&D effectively conveys both the combat and exploration aspects of the original dice-throwing game. Your journey begins on a sprawling map screen complete with mountain ranges, walls, forests, and your final destination: Cloudy Mountain. It looks like something from Lord of the Rings! As you traverse the wilderness you'll stumble into a series of monster-infested dungeons. These caverns are randomly generated and contain oddly-shaped rooms - something you don't see in old games. I love how the dungeons "draw in" as you roam, auto-mapping your progress. While searching for key items, you'll encounter bats, spiders, rats, snakes, blobs, demons, and dragons. It's a shame these creatures are all really, really tiny. The demons resemble aliens (complete with antennae) and I mistook the dragons were bears! Another problem is how you can't see an approaching monster until the thing's practically on top of you. Be sure to listen for sound cues that signal when danger is near. You can shoot a limited supply of arrows, and it's great how they actually ricochet off the walls! You'll want to take advantage of this technique in winding hallways - just be sure the arrows don't bounce back at you! AD&D's controls are responsive, and you can even run one way while shooting another. Five difficulty levels are included, and even the easiest is no cakewalk. If one element of the original game is missing, it would be the complexity. There are only a few items, no treasure, and no magic. Still, AD&D is a fun, arcade-style quest that will probably surprise a lot of gamers. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

In 1981 Atari had a runaway hit on their hands by the name of Asteroids. Mattel needed an answer, and what they came up with was pretty good! Astrosmash is a fast-paced shooter combining elements of both Asteroids and Space Invaders. You move a cannon back and forth over a planet surface, firing at raining asteroids which split in half when shot. You'll also need to keep an eye out for white "spinners" which cost you a life should they reach the surface. Upon scoring 20K, a huge bomb-dropping mother ship makes an appearance. The action is non-stop and a handy auto-fire feature unleashes three shots per second (sweet). Obliterating asteroids is a blast, and their explosions even incinerate other objects in the vicinity. To discourage the player from becoming passive, the game actually deducts points whenever an asteroid reaches the surface, so your final score is actually your "peak" score. For the first few minutes, Astrosmash is the best game you've ever played, but over time it wears out its welcome. The game drags on for far too long, and after 20 minutes or so you tend to grow weary of it all. The main culprit is an overabundance of lives - one awarded every 1000 points! I actually racked up over 20 reserve ships on the hardest difficulty! Even in advanced stages the game seems to replenish ships as fast as you can destroy them. I also noticed that the animation gets choppier and the collision detection suffers as you progress. It's still a good game, but I prefer the Atari version of Astrosmash, known as Astroblast (Atari 2600, 1982). © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.

Whoa! The Atari 2600 version of Atlantis was great, but this Intellivision version is amazing! Imagic pulled out all the stops for this, with outstanding visuals and surprisingly rich gameplay (relatively speaking of course). Heck, even the art in the instruction manual looks great. The gameplay involves shooting down invading ships that fly progressively lower across the screen until they begin frying your city below. The half-submerged city of Atlantis looks gorgeous, with its oscillating generators perched upon shadowed undersea mountains. Unlike the Atari version, you actually move crosshairs around the screen to precisely aim your missiles. Missiles are launched from cannons on both sides of the screen, and I love how they rotate in flight. Upon reaching their target they explode into a cloud of flack, so you don't have to hit your target dead-on. Since you can fire two missiles at a time, the game takes on a certain Missile Command flavor. You also have the option of unleashing your "Sentinel Saucer", which you move freely around the screen while firing missiles from both sides. Atlantis contains three distinct stages: day, dusk, and night. The day screen features a bright blue sky with white clouds, and dusk looks somewhat gray and overcast. The night screen is pitch dark save for two floodlights that pan the night sky for enemies. That's one nifty piece of programming. So what's not to like? Well, the controls could be better. Instead of using the left buttons to fire the left cannon and vice versa, the top buttons shoot the left cannon, and the bottom buttons fire the right. A balanced approach would have made the controls much more comfortable. The night stages seem to last a lot of longer than the day stages, which is annoying because they tend to be very hard. There's no co-op mode, but you do get three skill levels. Ambitious in scope and easy on the eyes, Atlantis is truly a showcase title for the Intellivision system. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

My friend Jonathan tossed out a great line while helping me review this game: "Dave, are you mad at me? Is that why we're playing this?" Auto Racing is one relic that might be best left buried deep below the earth's crust. If its counter-intuitive controls don't make you wince, its never-ending races certainly will. The action is viewed from an overhead perspective, and by all accounts the graphics are quite good. The houses on the side of the road have a slick 3D appearance with realistic shadows and colorful bushes. The roads twist and turn in every direction, but the scrolling has a herky-jerky quality that's not exactly pleasing to the eye. The two-player contests are similar to Micro Machines, in that you score points by taking a commanding lead or having your opponent crash. The main problem with this game lies with its steering controls. Pressing right always turns right, no matter which direction your car is facing, and even after you get the hang of it, it's very easy to suddenly become disoriented. Having to press the disk "lower" for sharper turns complicates matters even further. Another issue is Auto Racing's hit-or-miss collision detection, which will have you asking, "What the [expletive] did I just crash into?" The unpleasant "roar" of the car engines sound more like an out-of-tune radio signal. Finally, the races are simply too long. The two-player matches are meant to last until someone scores 50 points - which is a complete joke. Even racing solo (for best time) requires you to complete five long, boring laps. Auto Racing's gameplay was ahead of its time, and I'm sure it's quite fun with two players who know what they're doing. But only the most patient gamers will be able to overcome its steep learning curve. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

You can't expect much from an Intellivision wrestling game, but Body Slam: Super Pro Wrestling will surprise you. I was astonished by its remarkable graphics and surprising depth! You select from 12 large wrestlers, each with a unique appearance and individual attributes. There are wacky names like Judge Injury, Baron Von Thud, Jack Hammer, and Barf the Caveman. You select from a set of 26 moves (!), mapping them directly to numbers of the keypad. Each player can select his own skill level, and fighting the CPU is also an option. Each fighter makes an entrance amidst a cheering crowd, and it looks cool how they climb into the ring. A full-screen, bikini-clad chick displays the round numbers, and she winks when someone whistles in the crowd. Once the action begins, you're treated to some truly entertaining (and often hilarious) animations. The basic "grapple" moves include suplexes, head-butts, pile-drivers, and body slams. The screen often shakes to emphasize the impact of each blow. There are moves to execute while running, standing, on-the-matt, and even off-the-ropes! Running moves include devastating clotheslines and drop-kicks. Some of the more imaginative moves include the "face masher", "iron claw", and a "rainbow punch" which sends your opponent flying out of the ring! Be sure to read the instructions, because certain moves are only available in certain situations. Fighters with big ego attributes tend to showboat, giving their opponents a chance to recover. Body Slam is a technical tour-de-force, but as with most wrestling games, the fighting becomes tiresome after a few matches. It's too easy to get tossed out of the ring, and the matches last too long. Fighters can continue to execute moves even after their health has been reduced to zero, which is bogus. There's no final rating or score - you either win or lose. The tag team option is nice, but I wish you could team up with a friend against the CPU. Even with its flaws, Body Slam is a showcase title that really pushes the system to the max. © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.

Burgertime is fun on any system, but it may just shine the brightest on the Intellivision. Not only does this game retain that arcade look and feel, but its seven stages feature better layouts than most versions of the game. The idea is to guide a little chef along platforms and ladders while avoiding hot dogs, pickles, and eggs. Walking across buns, lettuce, tomato, and meat patties causes them to compress, drop, and ultimately form burgers on the bottom of the screen. Your chef is so detailed you can actually make out his little eyes and white mustache. Burgertime has a lot more strategy than your garden-variety platform game. If you drop a food item while an enemy is walking over it, he'll "ride it down" for major bonus points. Likewise you can squash multiple enemies walking below. Pepper is used to immobilize an enemy, but use them sparingly because they are super-rare and often your only means of escape if surrounded. A good general strategy is to stay high on the screen, as it gives you more opportunities to trigger satisfying chain reactions - intentionally or not. Navigating the platforms is a piece of cake, but the side buttons used to spray pepper could be more responsive. Another issue is how enemies can respawn in the middle of the screen, resulting in cheap deaths. One oddball feature is how the game keeps track of how many times you've turned the score over. Considering you need to reach one million point to do that once, it seems a bit gratuitous. But maybe the fact that the developers were willing to go the extra mile is part of why Burgertime is so satisfying. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

I was expecting Championship Tennis to be an incremental upgrade of Tennis (Mattel, 1980), but the designers went a totally different route. Instead of the side view, you're presented with a vertical view of the court as you would see it on TV. The players look pretty amazing considering their low resolution, to the point where they look motion-captured! When it comes to features, no other first-generation tennis title even comes close to matching this ambitious title. After selecting your speed you choose from three venues: Flushing Meadows (synthetic), Roland Garros (clay), and Wimbledon (grass). The player selection screen lets you configure a one-on-one match or doubles. Not only can you both have a CPU-controlled partner, but two people can team-up against the computer! Unfortunately the set-up process is confusing as hell so you'll probably need to consult the manual. The game's ambition is matched only by its steep learning curve. It's so hard to serve in-bounds, I once lost a game completely on faults. Returning the ball is hard because you need to be in perfect position and your swing timing must be exact. Considering the touchy movement controls and laggy swing controls, you'll need a lot of practice to become proficient at this. I'm usually happy just to make contact, only to watch the ball sail out of bounds. The game is frustrating and hard on your hands too. An "automatic swing" option would have been nice, similar to Activision's Tennis (Atari 2600, 1981). Championship Tennis is a sophisticated tennis title that poses quite the challenge if you're willing to take it on. Personally, I prefer my classic tennis to be a little more playable. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

This is a pretty amazing new homebrew, and the fact that it happens to be a seasonal title is a sweet bonus. Christmas Carol's title screen features a decorated tree, colorful gifts, and a harmonized rendition of "Ring Christmas Bells". The game itself is a little less festive but still includes a variety of holiday elements. You control a green elf, and you probably wouldn't know she was a chick if you didn't see the game's box cover. Each stage is a frozen cavern maze lined with ice blocks and icicles. The light blue color scheme is very easy on the eyes, especially over the deep black background. Gifts of various colors and sizes are scattered throughout each maze and your goal is to snag them all. The controls are super responsive as you scamper around the maze, occasionally darting through a tunnel on the side. The straightforward nature of the game is appealing, but the tricky maze configurations require quick thinking. You're pursued by a gift-stealing ghost and a psychotic snowman that enters the screen after unleashing a bloodcurdling howl. This mentally unstable snowman will strike fear into your heart as he wobbles around the maze while waving those freaky stick arms of his. If he catches you, your character freezes into ice before crumbling into a pile of snow (eat your heart out, Sub Zero). You can confuse your adversaries by grabbing a snowflake, and there are plenty of these around so don't hesitate. Between stages you're treated to some very cute and surprisingly entertaining intermissions (a la Pac-Man). The challenge ramps nicely, steadily becoming faster and more frantic. This is a long game that packs a heck of a lot of content. It comes packaged in a classic Mattel-style box, along with an instruction booklet and two overlays. The glossy manual is a lot of fun to read and really gets you in the spirit. Christmas Carol Vs. the Ghost of Christmas Presents is a quality title that every classic gamer will appreciate having every December. The official site for the game is CarolsVsGhost.com. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

This game is so super rare I had to review it off a Flash cartridge. If you've never played Congo Bongo, it's kind of a 3D Donkey Kong. Instead of ladders you climb tiered platforms while avoiding monkeys and bouncing coconuts. I have to tell you this Intellivision version is a real feast for the eyes with its lush foliage and cascading blue waterfalls. The monkeys are chunky but colorful. The villain of the game, Congo the ape, is rendered in red, making him a dead ringer for a Baron of Hell from Doom (Xbox One, 2016). Unlike most home versions of the game, this one begins with a short intro showing Congo setting your explorer's tent on fire! This is one Bad Monkey we're talking about here! Your little multi-colored explorer dude is surprisingly nimble, scurrying up slopes with relative ease. The game doesn't display your score and the timer at the same time, but instead alternates between the two, which is kind of distracting. The second screen plays like a sideways version of Frogger (Atari 2600, 1982), and it made me yell a lot of words I'm not proud of. There's zero room for error as you hop between lily pads, hippos, and slippery red fish to reach the opposite river bank. It's bad enough you need to be on the correct pixel to execute a jump, but the isometric perspective makes it really hard to judge where you're going to land! When I did make it across I would get caught up on an invisible wall and then trampled by a rhinoceros. I couldn't even tell you if there's a third screen. Congo Bongo should have been a great safari but its unforgiving controls will have you speaking fluent French. © Copyright 2017 The Video Game Critic.

I remember this arcade game from the early 80's well - they had one at the local High's convenience store. My friends and I would go there all the time because despite our lack of money, we could usually scrounge up enough change for a candy bar or a Mad magazine. Like most people, I was intimidated by Defender's vast array of buttons and controls: forward, reverse, shoot, hyperspace, smart bomb, and an up/down lever (not to mention the one or two player select buttons). And the game really was as hard as it looked, and a rookie would be lucky to last 30 seconds. Defender was a huge arcade hit nonetheless, but its Atari 2600 version was sub-par. The Intellivision folks had to wait a whole extra year to get their version, but it's a far superior translation. The minute I turned this on and feasted my eyes on that classic Defender logo, I knew I was in for a real treat. Defender pushes the Intellivision hardware to the limit. Your ship is blue, but it's perfectly shaped and rapid-fires streaming green missiles. The landscape below is constructed with angular red lines -- just like the arcade. The aliens even gyrate slightly, and with the exception of the minuscule enemy missiles (which are hard to see), the graphics are smooth and colorful. Perhaps the biggest surprise are the fantastic explosions that rival the arcade game - they look like fireworks! Even the sound effects are faithful to the original. Unfortunately, my elation was tempered by the fact that I had to use an Intellivision controller, which is ill-equipped to handle fast arcade action like this. As a result, the game is a lot harder than it should be, and your fingers pay the price. But as long as you can withstand the controller, you'll enjoy some first-rate Defender action. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

I expected this new homebrew to be superior in every way to the original Intellivision Donkey Kong, which was universally derided by critics. What I didn't expect was a game so close to arcade-perfect! Classic gamers are in for a shock. This cartridge is every bit as challenging, addictive, and fun as the arcade original. All four screens are included: barrels, rivets, elevators, and even the pie factory! The level of detail is astonishing. Except for the girl and bonus items (which are solid colors), the vibrant graphics look exactly like the arcade game! The barrels bounce, the oil burns, and the girl even yells "HELP!" from the top of the screen. Beginning with the ominous opening refrain, all the memorable sights, sounds, and intermissions are here. When Kong falls at the end of the rivets screen, his eyes even roll! Enjoy that concussion ya big ape! The game generally controls well. Mario is a nimble guy who has no trouble scooting up ladders. The game is less forgiving near the edge of platforms however, making the elevator screen a colossal challenge. I don't even think it's possible to snag the hammer on the left side of the rivets screen. Donkey Kong Arcade makes efficient use of screen real estate by displaying your score, lives, and the timer down the right side. There's even a colorful title screen with playful Kong mugging for the camera. As if that wasn't enough, you can select from two alternate characters with unique abilities. Toni is very fast and Bruno can climb while he's holding a hammer! As you would imagine, this adds quite a bit of replay value. Donkey Kong Arcade is not completely glitch-free, but issues are rare and will likely be addressed in future revisions. This is arguably the best version of Donkey Kong available for any home system, and it just might change your whole perception of the Intellivision console. You can purchase this game from www.elektronite.com. © Copyright 2011 The Video Game Critic.

This remarkably sophisticated side-scroller captures so many elements of the Dracula legend. The action takes place on a quiet London street lined with townhouses and a graveyard. Each night you rise from your coffin to feast on helpless townsfolk before returning by sunrise. You can find people wandering the streets or you can scare them out of their houses by knocking on the door. The manual states that Dracula is momentarily stunned when they dash out, but we know that's just a convenient excuse to give them a head start. Chasing down these people requires some effort! You need to be lined up perfectly and they won't stand still! It doesn't help that a constable (cop) is constantly tossing wooden stakes in your direction. Dracula looks great but when biting a victim his head looks a lot like Kermit the Frog. You can kill people for 50 points or transform them into constable-killing zombies. Since the zombie is controlled via the second controller, you really need a friend to help you perform this move. Once you've sucked a certain number of folks dry a panting white wolf chases you around. You can transform into a bat to avoid him, but that makes you vulnerable to a purple vulture. If that bird carries you off the screen it's game over! There's a lot going on in this game but the devil is in the details. Thunder doesn't crash until a few seconds after lightning strikes. Eyes peek from windows, but the people won't venture out if they've seen you kill somebody. A bright moon rises each night and the sky progressly brightens as dawn approaches. Dracula is off-the-charts when it comes to novelty value, but the repetitive action is tiresome and the controls are hell on your wrist. Still, that shouldn't prevent you from pulling this game out every October. © Copyright 2016 The Video Game Critic.