Climbing the trees isn't easy due to apple crossfire and the fact that falling any distance will kill you. You collect fruit along the way for points and ringing a bell causes more valuable fruit to appear. The arcade-style graphics look sharp but the audio is lousy. The nursery rhyme-style music will make you cringe and the high-pitched sound effects are just grating. And since this is on the Atari 5200 it almost goes without saying that the control sucks. You push up on the stick to jump, and since it doesn't auto-center you end up hopping several extra times.
Leaping between platforms requires a precision these controllers lack. The spaces between branches are small but your timing needs to be exact or you'll plunge to your death. Your toe literally needs to be just over the edge before you initiate that jump! My first instinct was to dial down the difficulty, but there are only two skill levels: novice and advanced! I guess it's that challenge that keeps me coming back for more. Kangaroo follows a familiar formula but has enough twists to keep things interesting. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.
Koffi's graphics are colorful and appealing. Lightning bolts shoot from the side of Pyro to form actual words like "BURN!" - a nice touch. The three forest screens are colorful and attractive, and I especially like the one with the evergreen trees and snow. There are ten different animals you can save, and each is nicely rendered in multiple colors. I found it amusing how this group includes a blue whale and calamari. The fourth screen is a "boss" confrontation with Pyro's mother -- a cloud stretched across the top of the screen with two huge eyes.
The game has a few technical issues. First, you must fly at just the right height above the fire in order to release your water, and it took me a while to figure this out. Also, the clumsy 5200 controller will cause Koffi to "slide" into the fire if you're not careful. Rescuing the animals is fun - too bad it's not more integral to the game. Finally, the whole "bumping into clouds" business does get repetitive after a while. Koffi is an acquired taste, but it's fun once you get the hang of it. Five skill levels are provided, so there's ample challenge. Koffi Yellow Copter is a fresh addition to the 5200 library that should appeal to arcade fans of all ages. © Copyright 2004 The Video Game Critic.
The title screen boasts a large Bug Bunny face overlooking a parade of characters. Actually these "characters" are weird monochromatic shapes that require quite a bit of effort to discern. It's a good thing subtitle names are used to identify Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and the Tasmanian Devil. Taz looks like a giant purple frog for Pete's sake!
Start up a new game and you're presented with a grid of generic doors, prompting some serious eye-rolling on my part. Some doors contain up or down arrows, transporting you between floors. Playing the role of Bugs Bunny you'll try to avoid the roving Elmer Fudd and a bomb-rolling Yosemite Sam.
Doors left ajar allow you to take cover from enemies and bombs. When a bomb comes to a stop you can pick it up and place it in the doorway, ala Spy Vs Spy (Atari XE, 1984). If you think it all sounds perfectly awful, you'd be right! The game is no fun at all and the point system makes no sense. Confusing, awkward, and just plain ugly, Atari did us all a favor by pulling the plug on this mess. © Copyright 2016 The Video Game Critic.