Atari 2600 Reviews T

Are you ready for a challenge? You'd better limber up those thumbs. Threshold is a rudimentary vertical shooter which at a glance looks a lot like Worm War I (Fox, 1982). Those wavy rainbow bars running along each side look so cheesy. Manning a cannon at the bottom of the screen, you take aim at birds, face-grabbers, mouse-ears, octopus, and other ambiguous objects moving in erratic patterns.

What's notable about Threshold is its control scheme, borrowed from Gorf (CBS, 1981). Not only can you move freely around the lower half of the screen, but when you fire a shot it cancels your previous shot. This effectively gives you short-range rapid-fire capability. It's a strategic trade-off whether you want to light up a target at the risk of getting up close and personal.

One interesting feature is your ability to toggle between normal (straight) and guided missiles via the difficulty switches. So why can't I get it to work? Well, as it turns out, the instructions were referring to enemy missiles. As if it wasn't hard enough dodging these spastic, dancing creatures, now their shots are darting around too! But you have to play that variation to prove you're the man. You are the man, aren't you?

Put quite simply, Threshold is hard as balls. Enemies have a tendency to move off the side of the screen and ram you upon re-entry. Make sure you're not in the center of the screen when a new wave begins, as a new enemy will materialize right on top of your ass. Threshold will chew you up, spit you out, and leave your thumb for dead. I hate it, which is why I love it. © Copyright 2022 The Video Game Critic.

Thrust is a far cry from the simplistic shooters so common on the 2600, and it's actually a conversion of an old Commodore 64 game. In addition to providing some great arcade-style shooting action, Thrust also has surprising depth. Like Gravitar, you guide a triangle-shaped ship through winding underground caverns, destroying cannons and picking up fuel. Shooting nuclear reactors will temporarily disable the cannons, but too much damage can cause a meltdown.

In later stages there are switches on the walls that open new areas. Controlling your ship takes skill, because you must constantly thrust to counteract the effects of gravity. Pushing the joystick up thrusts, and pulling back activates a protective shield. Your ultimate goal is to pick up a pod at the bottom of each cavern and transport it out safely. When you finally locate it, the real challenge begins!

It attaches to your ship via a cord, and swings precariously as you attempt to transport it through the narrow caverns without smashing it against a wall. It's a balancing act that requires excellent technique, and completing each mission is very satisfying. The crude graphics are large and blocky, but the animation is smooth and the control is flawless. The 24-level challenge is immense but rarely frustrating. There are even five levels of difficulty. Don't miss the best game to come along for the 2600 in a long time! © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.

Here's a marginal game with blocky graphics and dull colors. You control a tank on the bottom of the screen that eats away at dirt in a Dig-Dug-like fashion. Two tanks pursue you as you clear away the dirt between you and your targets. The main problem with Thunderground is that it takes too long before the challenge kicks in. The enemy tanks initially move like snails, and their shots aren't much faster. You can methodically shoot your way through the first few rounds with little resistance. Occasionally you uncover a pixelated object in the dirt that's worth extra points. It's not until around stage nine that things start to get interesting, and you might have to start taking some evasive maneuvers. But you shouldn't have to play through eight rounds to get to the fun! © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

When I was a wee lad I would watch in awe as people played this game at the local arcades. Time Pilot was a fly-anywhere shooter with bright skies extending in all directions. Better yet, you traveled through various periods of history from 1910 to 2001! Each era has its own period-appropriate aircraft, so in 1910 you're fighting bi-planes and in 1983 you're shooting down fighter jets. I couldn't wait to see what the next stage had in store.

The first time I reviewed this game I didn't have the benefit of a manual. It's kind of rare and expensive, so I downloaded a copy. As it turns out, setting the proper game variation is not the most intuitive thing. Instead of using the game select switch, you have to fiddle with the two difficulty switches to set the skill level and number of players.

The game itself is a modest imitation of the arcade, but it doesn't look bad. Your plane controls well and can fly behind the clouds. You only fire one shot at a time and enemies never really bunch up like in the arcade. Instead of lighting up a whole squadron, you're just sort of picking off enemies one by one. You can shoot clear across the screen but pressing the button again cancels your current shot, kind of like Gorf (CBS, 1981).

Time Pilot likes to bait you into dying. You need to be heading towards an aircraft to shoot it down, but the closer you get the better the chance you'll get shot or collide with it. In fact, collisions are the most likely way to die in this game. Enemy aircraft do a good job of moving in unpredictable patterns, especially those circa 1970 helicopters.

What impresses me most about Time Pilot for the 2600 is how it retains all five stages - including the 2001 flying saucers. Each stage culminates with a brief boss encounter, although they are modest in size and go down with one shot. In addition, there are no bonus paratroopers to rescue. Time Pilot for the Atari definitely feels different, but it's still quite addictive and I enjoy its sense of progression. © Copyright 2024 The Video Game Critic.

I roll my eyes when I see "Zellers" associated with an obscure Atari 2600 cartridge. It was one of those semi-legit companies that would publish any game for a buck. Still, I guess some of their stuff has merit. Play value? Alright, let's settle on conversation value. Time Warp is a generic side-scrolling shooter with a bunch of chunky helicopters approaching from the right. Miss a few and they just wrap around.

When you destroy the last one however something interesting happens. In what appears to be some sort of drawn-out explosion animation, the game actually is spawning a new set of adversaries. In this case five pulsating purple sponges. The process repeats several times as you destroy waves of saucers, birds, and other random shapes.

Unfortunately the mind-numbing shooting action is hampered by glitchy visuals, bad collision detection, and nonstop explosion sounds. I was so bored it took an unexpected bonus level to jar me from my stupor. The idea here is to navigate narrow red caverns to dock with some puckering orifice on the far right. Succeed and you'll earn a free ship, but is that really a reward? I did the Time Warp, but I don't want to do the Time Warp again. © Copyright 2021 The Video Game Critic.

Titan Axe is a scaled-down version of an old favorite, Golden Axe (Genesis, 1989). I was really stoked to see how an Atari system would handle this hack-and-slash classic. Titan Axe begins with an arcade-style character selection screen, letting you choose between a stout dwarf or lithe babe. So far so good, right? The gameplay involves moving your character to the right, forging through contiguous screens, each offering new scenery and a fresh foe to slay.

The characters are large and extremely chunky. I can live with that, but the controls are another story. When you press the attack button you expect a weapon to stick out, but instead your warrior just gyrates in place as the enemy passes right through you. What the hell is going on?!? While performing a "special move" your character morphs into an incomprehensible jumble of pixels, sliding up and under your target. Eventually the monster disappears, but it's never clear how or why that happened. Worse yet, you usually sustain heavy damage in the process.

Occasionally a fairy flutters across the screen but I don't know what its significance is. All I know is, I can't kill it! After button-mash through several screens I find myself staring at a blood-soaked "GAME OVER" screen. There's no score in this game. I feel bad about my lack of progress because according to the glossy manual there are 64 screens (!) over eight sprawling stages (!!) and a slew of monsters to go with them. I suspect there's a decent game in this Titan Axe cartridge somewhere, but I can't find it, and it's not for a lack of effort. © Copyright 2016 The Video Game Critic.

Title Match is a good looking wrestling game, but its gameplay is badly outdated. With four distinct wrestlers to select from, you can play against the CPU or another player. Moreover, the matches can be tag team or one-on-one. The number of moves is impressive, and can be chained together to perform everything from elbow drops to body slams to airplane spins. Heck, you can even dive from the ropes!

Unfortunately, once you start actually playing the game, the carefully-designed control scheme goes out the window. The computer opponent is impossible to defeat, and he'll have you pinned in a heartbeat. On the other hand, when playing against a friend it's extremely hard to pin him, and the bouts go on long after the wrestlers have exhausted their strength. Still, I did have a good laugh watching the stiff-looking fighters toss each other around the ring. Title Match is an ambitious game, but it's not very fun to play. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

If you're a fan of Pitfall (Activision, 1982) wait'll you get a load of Tom Boy. This shameless knock-off is basically a Pitfall "remix" with new colors, sprites, and sound effects. If this was, in fact, released in 1983, I'm impressed they managed to steal the Activision code, knock out a hack, and get it to market so quickly!

The prim-and-proper Pitfall Harry has been replaced by some kind of Tarzan-looking character in a loincloth. His skin hue suggests the poor guy may be suffering from a case of yellow jaundice. Consistent with other animations in this game, Tom runs in a less-than-graceful manner. Instead of climbing ladders to and from underground caves, he kind of scoots up and down poles.

The Pitfall formula is largely unchanged as you run between contiguous screens, gathering treasure while avoiding dangers like jagged snakes. The underground areas are guarded by the alien dog from Alien 3. Wow, that is one obscure reference. Anyway, that thing is impossible to jump over.

Some of the modified objects leave much to be desired. The "gold" is now in a red box, making it look more like movie popcorn. There's a spider that looks like a pixelated mess. Did someone step on it? When swinging over a pit, Tom makes the generic "falling down" sound you hear in too many other 2600 games. Since this is a PAL translation, the screen tends to "roll" between some screens.

The news isn't all bad however. The red trees in front of the turquoise "sky" project a very appealing color scheme. The crocodile heads have been replaced by lilly pads, and it's nice being able to skip over them in a carefree manner. Tom Boy doesn't improve upon Pitfall, but it gives you an idea of what it might be like to play the game in some kind of alternate-dimension, Bizarro world. © Copyright 2023 The Video Game Critic.

Here's a game so rare I couldn't even find any instructions on-line! Fortunately Tomarc wasn't very hard to figure out. The game has one unique feature, and that is the ability to switch between two characters by pulling back on the joystick. These characters include a barbarian and a caged woman; you'll need to maintain both their health level. Mainly, you control the barbarian, searching for a magic sword (or is it a key?) to free the girl.

Jumping between contiguous screens, you must avoid rats that scamper over the floors. This brings up a host of issues. First off, the stiff jumping controls are dreadful. Trying to jump through the narrow holes in the walls (and ceilings) is a royal pain, and your barbarian often pauses for no apparent reason (aside from poor programming of course). Why is a muscular barbarian afraid of a few puny rats anyway?

Periodically a warning buzzer indicates that a bat is approaching the girl. Fortunately, she's armed (with what, I don't know) and switching to her screen lets you shoot down that nasty thing. Once Tomarc secures the sword (key, whatever) he just needs to reach her screen to automatically free her and rack up bonus points. I like the dual-character idea, but Tomarc the Barbarian's lack of polish prevents it from being anything special. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

For 2600 fans looking for something more substantial, I'd recommend this incredibly realistic jet fighter simulator. With its sophisticated gameplay and intense air combat action, Tomcat is a very unusual but impressive effort. Technically, Tomcat gets the most out of the system. You begin on an aircraft carrier platform, with a deck officer prompting you to throttle your engine.

After launch, you immediately need to pull up on the joystick to avoid crashing into the water. Once you attain an altitude of 5000 feet, the combat portion of the game begins. Your plane is equipped with machine guns and three types of missiles. You'll not only need to jockey for position with the bogeys, but also shake off guided missiles.

Your cockpit is loaded with indicators and displays to monitor enemy fighters, weapons, fuel, wing position, and flight paths. The visuals are superb. Enemy bogeys scale nicely into view, you can see ripples in the water below, and the sky color cycles from blue to red to black as day turns to night. If you run low on fuel or supplies, you can execute a landing sequence back on the carrier.

I have to warn you - there's a serious learning curve required to play, but Tomcat is undoubtedly the most realistic game I've ever played on my 2600. My only complaint is the clumsy control scheme, which uses one joystick, the select switch, and reset switch to cycle through displays and options. I think Absolute could have simplified things by utilizing the difficulty and black/white switches, and maybe a second joystick. Still, Tomcat F14 is too good to be ruined by clumsy controls. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

This game was produced by Johnson and Johnson, so you know it's fun! Their logo even appears on the title screen. Some may consider Tooth Protectors an educational title designed to teach kids good oral hygiene, but it's really just a promotional item. The manual contains ads for Johnson and Johnson dental floss, Reach toothbrush, and Act dental rinse. A brief opening sequence depicts a set of big square teeth on the bottom of the screen being treated with a toothbrush, dental floss, and mouthwash.

The graphical depiction of the cleaning isn't bad, but that nursery rhyme-style song has got to go. When the action begins you move your "tooth protector" side-to-side over the teeth. He's got a big creepy smile and looks a heck of a lot like the Kool-Aid guy. Moving along the top of the screen is a baddy who drops "snack" cubes, and your protector can deflect these back. Hitting the baddie will kill him and earn you points, but he's quickly replaced.

What's interesting about this game is how you can angle your deflections by moving your protector as you hit a cube. If you're moving fast you can carom it at a pretty sharp angle. The instructions suggest using a trak-ball, but that just makes things harder since it takes longer to move across the screen. Sorry, the paddles are not supported. With each wave the baddie unloads more squares and the challenge ramps in a hurry.

Periodically you'll hear a warning buzzer signaling that the baddie is about to swoop down and grab you. It's a terrifying situation so be sure to quickly move to the far side of the screen to avoid his clutches! Tooth Protectors isn't a bad little game, but it may lead people to believe that Kool-Aid prevents cavities, which is probably not the case. Collectors will want this game for its novelty value alone. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

Although more playable than Imagic's Firefighter, Towering Inferno suffers from poor graphics. Each stage begins with a helicopter flying from the top of a building. Initially, the building is completely engulfed in flames, but the fire disappears as you gradually conquer each floor. Each level is a blocky maze full of flickering W's that you extinguish with your endless water supply.

Your goal is to reach the white "door" at the top of the screen, and then escape out the bottom. That takes you back to the building screen, where the helicopter lands and "releases" the rescued people. Actually, it looks more like the helicopter is shooting blocks. In general, the graphics really suck. Your firefighter looks like a static blob and the blocky stages look like crap. The jumping, flickering flames look more like a graphical glitch, but at least they tend to be unpredictable. Your water cannon looks more like a trickle with three blue dots!

Control is good, and dousing the flames is fairly satisfying. The best aspect of Towering Inferno is how it encourages you to take chances. Should you extinguish those last few flames, or just try to dart across the room? Aggressive play is rewarded with more points, but can also get you burned (pun intended). When you complete a whole building, all you're treated to is a simple flashing screen - weak! In terms of difficulty, Towering Inferno is on the easy side. It's a sloppy game but definitely unique. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.

It's amazing what programmers can do with the Atari 2600 nowadays. Toyshop Trouble is not only a technical marvel, but it exudes holiday cheer! The originality and creativity of this game is remarkable. I play hundreds of video games every year, yet I can't recall ever having played anything quite like this! Toyshop's main screen consists of five conveyor belts of moving toys with pots of paint lining both sides of the screen.

The idea is to paint all the toys their proper color before a timer expires. Each day in December offers a new "wave", often adding a new variety of toy into the mix. A nice intermission screen explains how newly introduced toys are to be painted. Some can be painted a solid color, but most require multiple colors, and sometimes the order in which you apply the colors makes a difference! Quick thinking and good technique is required to paint the toys in the most efficient manner.

The controls are excellent, and the fire button allows you to dash - a move that's often handy but sometimes risky. Toyshop Trouble is outrageously fun to play, but it's the toys themselves that steal the show. Not only are there the obligatory fire trucks, trumpets, and trains, but also more modern toys like Tonka Trucks, Godzilla figures, Lincoln Logs, and even AT-AT Walkers from Star Wars! And when I saw those beautiful Atari 2600 joysticks, I couldn't believe my eyes.

The multi-colored toys are artistically rendered in a high resolution, and Toyshop's audio features authentic choo-choo whistles and melodic holiday music. Completing the entire month of December poses a serious challenge, and as icing on the cake, there's even an Easter Egg buried in the game. The only thing missing is a two-player co-op mode! With so few holiday-themed games available, Toyshop Trouble is like a Christmas miracle! © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

This is one of the most competitive games you'll ever play on your Atari 2600. Released to coincide with the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Track & Field provides frantic action similar to Decathlon (Activision, 1983) and Summer Games (Atari XE, 1984). The sharp graphics feature multi-colored and fluidly-animated athletes.

There are six events including sprint, long jump, javelin, hurdles, hammer, and high jump. If you've ever played the 1500m race in Decathlon, you'll appreciate the fact that all of these events are very short. Custom controllers were created specifically for this game. You alternately tap the two white buttons to build speed, and press the red button to perform an action (like throwing a javelin). The controllers are cool, but when push comes to shove, joysticks are the way to go. If nothing else, you'll get better scores.

Another thing that distinguishes Track and Field is its sheer difficulty. A minimum event score is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and if you don't qualify, the whole game abruptly ends. Even when playing on the novice setting, reaching the sixth event is a major achievement. In the two-player game, when one player gets knocked out early, the other must play out the remaining events against the CPU. Track & Field is highly entertaining and even thrilling at times. Difficulty notwithstanding, modern Olympic video games could learn a thing or two from this. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

Here's another obscure PAL conversion from Europe I'm mainly reviewing for completion's sake. The screen offers turquoise waters, red sunsets, and mysterious shores on the horizon. Unfortunately the graphics look messy and the audio is even worse, calling to mind a toddler pounding on a toy piano. You guide a ship around the left side of the screen, adjusting your cannon's trajectory while unloading cannon balls on ships and sea creatures.

Treasure Island has a few nice visual flourishes like ships propelled through the water by tiny oars. That's a nifty effect, but why do these same oars appear alongside whales and sharks?! Enemy ships resemble rubber duckies but there's a cool explosive flash when you hit one, sinking it into the depths. The ability to adjust your cannon would be a good idea if you could keep the [expletive] thing steady!

It doesn't help that the water currents are pushing you around and you need to press the stick right while pressing the button to shoot. What am I seeing on the horizon? Is that a jet fighter in a pirate game? Are those two moons?! You get six ships but you'll go through them fast because it's hard to tell when you're losing them. I played Treasure Island longer than I expected because the instructions hint it's possible to actually reach the island. I never got there but I'm sure the ending is totally amazing. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

Trick Shot deserves credit if only for sheer ambition. You get a full, working pool table on one little cartridge, saving you thousands of dollars! Well, not exactly. Despite supplying a nice variety of playing modes, there are only four balls (counting the cue ball). It also lacks the fine-grained control you need for a precision game like pool.

The table is rendered with chunky pockets but the balls are round and roll smoothly. The physics can be a bit wonky as balls tend to speed up or slow unexpectedly. But the controls are the real liability. Your angles are extremely limited, and while you can apply English to compensate, that is easier said than done. You would think that pushing towards the ball would provide topspin, but it's just the opposite.

"Trick shot" mode is the highlight, putting you into nine different situations with balls strategically placed around the table. By applying just the right amount of power and spin, it's possible to sink them all. You earn a point for each ball sunk, so even if you can't master this mode, you can at least measure your progress.

The pool variations are simplified versions of the game with no concept of solids or stripes. You just earn a point for each ball sunk. The one-player mode lacks a CPU opponent, so you're just shooting around for practice. There's also a English Billiards variation, but since I'm not British I didn't even attempt it. The instructions look complicated as hell.

Trick Shot reminds me of a scaled-down version of Side Pocket (Genesis, 1992), but it doesn't play as well. After missing a few easy shots, I resort to just knocking the balls around in the hopes of something going in. Trick Shot is a unique addition to the Atari 2600 library. In this game there's always a shot... but good luck trying to find it. © Copyright 2023 The Video Game Critic.

​​ Tron Deadly Discs was a flagship Intellivision title, so how well did it translate to the Atari 2600? Well, the animation is smoother and faster. The characters are slightly less detailed but the action is non-stop. Being able to use a proper joystick makes all the difference as you sprint across the screen while avoiding those deadly discs.

The futuristic premise has you trapped in a room with waves of dudes dropping in, throwing discs at you. You have your own disc which returns to you after it hits a wall or you call it back. It's not lethal on its return flight, which was a missed opportunity if I ever saw one. I stumbled upon one feature by accident, which is the ability to use doors along the edges to exit and re-enter on the other side.

I love the relentless nature of this game. On the Intellivision, you don't get a new set of adversaries until you clear out all the old ones, but here, the reinforcements arrive continuously. There is however one huge feature missing from this game, and that's the menacing boss that enters every few rounds in the Intellivision version.

Tron Deadly Discs is highly playable but make sure you're using a good joystick because this is a real wrist-wringer. Yes, I just made up that term and I'm pretty proud of it! This review was conducted with my blue Tron joystick which I love but doesn't have much of a handle to hold. I think you're supposed to suction cup it to a table or something.

You could argue that the Atari version of Tron Deadly Discs is more playable than the Intellivision original, but without the boss encounter to break up the monotony, the game loses much of its mystique. © Copyright 2022 The Video Game Critic.

Although technically impressive, Tunnel Runner's simplistic gameplay won't win over many gamers. Older games that rely on fancy 3D effects don't tend to age well. Like a first-person Pac-man, Tunnel Runner's challenge is to escape from a maze while avoiding wandering heads with huge fangs.

The illusion of movement is smooth and convincing, and navigating hallways is surprisingly quick and easy. The "heads" are impressively large and scale nicely. Sound cues indicate when they are approaching, which adds a bit of suspense. Unfortunately, having to constantly check your position on the map screen (by holding the button) is a real chore.

The first few four stages are easy, but once you reach the "blind" mazes, the difficulty goes through the roof. Tunnel Runner may have gotten by on sheer novelty value in 1983, but in retrospect, its shallow gameplay is not very fun. © Copyright 2004 The Video Game Critic.

On the Colecovision Turbo showcased remarkable scaling scenery and was packaged with a steering wheel controller that really put you in the driver's seat. A Turbo prototype was created for the Atari 2600, but it never saw the light of day - until now! This intriguing new cartridge from Atari Age includes both the original prototype and a new enhanced version. To be frank, the prototype could easily pass for a complete game.

It's a lot like Enduro (Activision, 1982) as you dodge cars that approach one by one. When you accelerate the road remains static as blocky cars rapidly scale into view. They're hard to avoid at top speed, so you'll want to tap the button to regulate your speed. The game demands twitch reflexes, so why aren't paddles used to steer? You'll need to pass 30 cars to extend the 90-second time limit, and that's not easy. Sometimes you'll be tempted to "hide out" in a corner and let cars whiz by, but the CPU quickly catches on to this strategy and sets you up for a head-on collision.

At first glance Turbo's graphics look pretty shoddy. The city skyline in the distance doesn't look bad, but that static gray road looks pretty blah. Sparse scenery scales by including white buildings that look like Legos. The light posts look pretty cool though, and the evergreen trees look nice in the snow stages. As you progress the scenery changes abruptly and frequently, and you'll even pass through a dark tunnel.

The enhanced Turbo is more polished and forgiving. It irons out the glitches of the original and incorporates realistic physics. There's a definite sense of momentum and I like how your car slows as you roll over the shoulder of the road. Turbo for the 2600 is fast and furious fun, proving once again that good gameplay will overcome mediocre graphics every time. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

Here's a game few people have heard about, but those who have will tell you it's one of the best games for the system. I would describe Turmoil as a 2D Tempest. Your ship moves up and down in the center of the screen between seven rows, and can shoot left or right. A variety of colorful aliens move across these rows, trying to ram your ship. Fortunately, you have rapid-fire capability, and you can flood the rows with missiles. Some enemies however, like tanks, are invincible and must be avoided altogether. One particular type of alien sits and waits at the end of a row, and if you nab it before it starts moving, you'll score big points. With nine skill levels, Turmoil is a well-designed game that requires quick thinking to keep up with its frantic action. © Copyright 2000 The Video Game Critic.

When you consider how great Tutankham is on the Colecovision, this sloppy translation can only be described as wretched. The goal is to survive four dungeon mazes while gathering treasures and exterminating spawning monsters. Tutankham is undeniably challenging, but for all the wrong reasons. Judging from its graphics, it appears that Parker Bros put its junior programmer to work on this project. I guess their best programmers were too busy working on that cool James Bond "train shootout" game that was never released but looked freakin' awesome in their catalog!

Tutankham's mazes feature dozens of monsters and treasures, but they're so puny that it's hard to discern what they're supposed to be! The snakes and scorpions look okay, but that triangle is supposed to be a Jackal? Uh-huh. Your explorer is a static stick figure, and he's a nightmare to control. Your movements are jerky, you can't move diagonally, and you're constantly getting caught up on the ill-defined passageways. If it makes you feel any better, the creatures tend to get stuck as well!

Unlike other versions of Tutankham, this game scrolls vertically. That doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize you can only fire sideways! When shot, creatures briefly transform into an asterisk, and that looks pitiful. Poor collision detection runs rampant, so be sure to apply those smart bombs liberally! I find it amusing how the first dungeon's "treasure" is the word "MAP". The sparse sound effects mainly consist of alternating beeps. Tutankham for the 2600 is an embarrassment, and King Tut would be spinning in his sarcophagus if he ever found out his name had been slapped onto this choppy mess! © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.