Atari 7800 Reviews M-R

I'm not exaggerating when I say it took nearly ten years to acquire this rare cartridge. Why is Mean 18 so hard to track down? Oh I don't know - maybe because it's freakin' awesome? The game is exceptionally easy to play and its graphics are clean and attractive. There are no fancy hole previews, no alternate camera angles, no commentary, and no wind to be concerned with. It's actually quite refreshing to play a golf game that sticks with the basics and does them so well. Before each hole you view a small overhead map and some minimal distance information. The tee-off screen offers a nice vantage point, and the three-press swing meter extends down the entire left edge of the screen. The distance to the hole is indicated on the screen, but you'll need to consult the manual to see the range of each club. Why the game can't display this basic information I have no idea, but you'll quickly memorize the distances anyway. The swinging animation is smooth and it's fun to watch the ball sail. It tends to waiver in the air, adding drama as you apply "body english" to keep it on the fairway. On short approach shots the ball has a tendency to "spaz out" in the air, but it lands in the right spot. Getting the ball onto the green isn't hard and the putting is forgiving. Arrows that look like Lego blocks indicate slope, but they are rarely even a factor. My favorite aspect of the game is how you can play 18 holes in well under a half hour. With intuitive controls, an uncluttered interface, and a gentle learning curve, Mean 18 is everything you'd want in a classic golf title. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.

Guess whose mug is plastered across the box of Midnight Mutants? None other than that feisty "Grampa" from the old Munsters TV show. Atari really had their fingers on the pulse of the popular culture in 1990! Kids were going wild over black-and-white comedies from the 1960s! Anyway Midnight Mutants begins with a terrific animated intro depicting satanic activities in a creepy pumpkin patch next to a looming dark mansion. Wow! The game is played from an isometric perspective as you you freely roam between contiguous screens in a country setting. You'll collect items, fight monsters, and explore creepy locations like a church, barn, cabin, lab, pumpkin patch, and sprawling mansion. The graphics are so good you'll want to wander around just to check out the scenery. The only areas I didn't like were the forest and caves which tend to be confusingly maze-like. The controls feel stiff because you can only move in four directions. From the player's standpoint you cannot move diagonally, but from a spectator's point of view you can only move diagonally. Odd! The second button equips items and calls up Gramps for hints. Midnight Mutants is inscrutable if you don't know what you're doing. You need to collect the items in a particular order and there are arbitrary rules like only being able to pass through hedges at a certain spot. The manual offers plenty of hints but for my money nothing beats a YouTube walk-through to get you over the hump. The first boss is a screen-sized ram skull which is downright alarming to behold. He's not as fierce as he looks however, and cheesy music tends to undermine the horror. Still, there's a nice variety of enemies in this game including bats, crows, spiders, ghosts, werewolves, plant-people, and an assortment of zombies. When you kill a zombie with an axe, its body splits in two as its head falls straight down. Love it! There's a lot to see and do in Midnight Mutants and plenty of secrets to uncover. It's clunky as hell, but this Atari 7800 exclusive does a fine job of catering to the horror crowd. © Copyright 2018 The Video Game Critic.

Pete Rose had the makings of a perfectly good baseball game. The field looks terrific, and the pitcher/batter view looks like a real television broadcast. But is there a reason why the players' heads appear to be wrapped in bandages? It looks like a bunch of freakin' mummies out there, and last time I checked Egypt did not have a team! King Tut can deliver four types of pitches at varying speeds, keeping the batter off-balance. Once the ball is hit, you only see a portion of the field at a time. The infield is split in half, and each outfield has its own screen. Those blue outfield fences with the distance marked on them look pretty sharp! The screen "flips" when the ball is thrown between areas, but it's not so bad. What kills the game is the mechanism for fielding balls in the infield. Instead of automatically taking control of the nearest player, you need to manually select between the four fielders visible on the screen. Fair enough, but each player can only move within strictly-defined horizontal zones. As a result, when a grounder dribbles behind the mound, only first-basemen can reach it, despite the fact that the second-baseman is only a millimeter away! Invisible walls are the order of the day, turning an otherwise respectable game into a complete joke. Isn't it odd how they can't get the basic fielding right, yet there's an infield fly rule!? The audio is another detriment, with droning static for the crowd and a repetitive "charge" fanfare. Pete Rose Baseball had a chance to be the definitive baseball game for the Atari 7800, but it failed to get the basics right. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

Plutos is a long-unreleased shooter recently resurrected by several Atari 7800 enthusiasts, and classic gamers everywhere should be overjoyed. There's a lot to like about this vertically-scrolling shooter, not the least of which is its support for two-player simultaneous action! There's no slow-down as both players blast away, each with his own score displayed at the top. The graphics are excellent. Shading is effectively used to give each stage a dark, foreboding look. The scenery features imaginative futuristic structures, but you never actually interact with it. Rotating enemies spiral down the screen in bunches and move in unpredictable patterns. Your default weapon is fairly weak, but power-up icons abound, each of which is labeled with a number. I prefer the double shot (#1), although the wide shot (#2) is also effective. I try to avoid #3, which is a single straight laser beam. Unfortunately, an icon will often appear right on top of you, changing your weapon whether you want to or not. You'll want to collect the same number to upgrade your firepower, but after you max out you'll inexplicably be downgraded. Each stage ends with an obligatory (and unremarkable) boss. I like how you can hold down the fire button to shoot repeatedly, but the lack of music makes Plutos bland in the audio department. When the game ends, a nifty high score screen ranks you in. I played Plutos with several friends, and every one of them was impressed as hell. If you appreciate classic gaming, Plutos belongs in your collection. It can be obtained at Good Deal Games. © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.