Colecovision Reviews S

Spectravideo produced a lot of marginal games in the early 80's which may or may not have contributed to the Video Game Crash of '83. Don't confuse this company with the hotel adult video channel, which I learned about from a friend. The premise of Sector Alpha would have been compelling in its day. It's a multi-screen first-person shooter that pits you against "penetrator ships". Hmmm... maybe this company is related to that channel!

Despite its elaborate instructions and complicated HUD, Sector Alpha isn't all that sophisticated. Gameplay boils down to moving a crosshair around to shoot down white flying saucers. The screen scrolls around as you move the cursor, offering a view of an expansive starbase with black mountains on the horizon and domes in the foreground. This could have been the opportunity for some nice eye candy, but the landscape looks almost glitchy in appearance.

The controls are stiff and inexact. Pressing forward moves the cursor downward which as the instructions explain is "how it works in real aircraft". I'm in an aircraft?! The lock-on mechanism is bizarre. When you pass the cursor over something and fire, your target freezes momentarily. Problem is, your cursor rarely lines up directly on target, requiring you to make small, quick adjustments.

Enemies unleash yellow missiles that scale as they approach. You can either shoot them down or scroll them off the side of the screen. If you do the latter, make sure you don't return to that area too soon or the missile may still be there!

The game does have one innovative feature that was well ahead of its time. There are three large viewports buzzing with aliens, and by pressing the cursor against the edge of the screen you can move to the next adjacent one. This reminds me of the "virtual screen" interfaces employed on modern computers.

Sector Alpha isn't all that hard when you get a feel for it. Enemies tend move in the same patterns, so sitting in one spot may allow you to destroy three or four in a row. Overall the game reminds me of a second-rate Subroc (Coleco, 1983). I'd recommend playing this with a Super Action Controller to minimize wear and tear on the wrist. © Copyright 2023 The Video Game Critic.

Infamously advertised in Colecovision catalogs, Side Trak was an obscure Exidy arcade game that never actually materialized on the system... until 2011! The screen layout consists of four connected squares of railroad tracks. You guide a train car around it, picking up passengers lining the tracks while avoiding a killer locomotive.

If you enjoy Dodge 'em (Atari 2600, 1980) Side Trak is similar in concept. It's fast-paced and exciting to switch tracks at the last moment to avoid collision. But the most striking aspect of Side Trak is its background music, boasting a stunning rendition of Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train, complete with voice sample ("all aboooard!!"). If you're a collector, that's probably all you need to hear.

Chugging around the tracks to pick up people is fun for a while. Unfortunately whenever you make a turn you inadvertently reconfigure the track, so the next time around your train will make unexpected turns. You can get turned around very easy, and it feels as if you've lost control! I'm goin' off the rails on a crazy train! You can override the track configuration by holding the stick in the direction you want to go but it's very hard on the hands.

Clearing a single screen in this game is no small feat because the screen completely resets when you crash - even if only two or three passengers remain. I'd think I'd enjoy this game more if I didn't feel like I was fighting with it. That said, playing a long-lost game with a killer soundtrack is a treat you don't get too often. © Copyright 2021 The Video Game Critic.

Sky Jaguar was originally developed by Konami in 1984, but ported to the Colecovision only recently. To be honest, I'm not so sure this old relic was worth resurrecting. Sky Jaguar is a bland vertical shooter that's as generic as they come. The game bears a striking resemblance to Xevious, except you don't bomb things on the ground - you just shoot a variety of airborne objects. If you have any doubt about the Xevious influence, wait until you see the first boss (*cough*rip-off*cough).

Sky Jaguar's scenery looks nice, particularly the craggy, red-desert canyon, but it scrolls in a jerky manner. Gameplay involves shooting rapidly while avoiding incoming missiles, but since there's no rapid-fire, you'll need to constantly press the side buttons -- which is absolute murder on your hands. A double-shot power-up eases the pain slightly, but not much. Sky Jaguar is playable, but really doesn't have much to offer. © Copyright 2004 The Video Game Critic.

It's a shame Slither requires the Roller Controller (aka Trak-ball) because that thing is hard to find and this is a good game. The idea is to slide a cannon around a desert landscape and exterminate black snakes. Not only do you have the run of the entire screen, you can fire both up and down!

Set in the rock-strewn southwest landscape, Slither boasts some beautiful color schemes. Initially the screen is bright yellow with a brilliant red sunset running across the top. When night arrives the color scheme transforms into a gorgeous deep blue.

Each wave begins with black snakes slithering in from the edges. Blasting them causes them to divide, and eventually you're left with a bunch of squiggly little snakes that resemble sperm to an alarming degree. Instead of leaving mushrooms in their wake, deceased snakes leave behind tiny green bushes. Spicing things up are pterodactyls and winged baby T-Rexes that randomly flutter across the screen.

Slither is a lot of fun. When you get into a groove you'll find yourself skillfully maneuvering around rocks and narrowly escaping all sorts of dangerous predicaments. Be sure not to work your way into a corner! The bushes really impede your movement so clear them out whenever possible.

Slither is a bit rough around the edges. The pterodactyl animation is so choppy that the collision detection goes out the window when you're anywhere near that thing. Advanced stages incorporate snakes burrowing through the ground (Tremors?) but they look glitchy. The audio effects slow down severely when the screen gets busy.

Each wave kicks off with a rendition of "When the Saints Come Marching In", which didn't make any sense until Sudz explained it's "When the snakes go marching in." Well that makes perfect sense then. Slither's gameplay may borrow heavily from Centipede (Atari, 1983), but with so many unique elements it feels totally fresh. © Copyright 2022 The Video Game Critic.

The first time I played Smurf I admired its graphics yet couldn't quite grasp its controls. It wasn't until I learned the proper jumping technique that I could enjoy the game as it was intended. Rescue In Gargamel's Castle features multi-colored characters and lush scenery. The flowery meadows, white picket fences, and wooded backdrops look absolutely gorgeous. In some screens you can even see Gargamel's castle looming in the distance!

Complementing the ample eye candy is a lively, harmonized musical score. The bass-heavy "echo" effects in the cave screens are also noteworthy. The controls however leave much to be desired. Overcoming many hazards requires performing long jumps by stopping momentarily, hopping straight up, then pushing the joystick up again just as you land. It's not the least bit intuitive, but it's critical if you want to make any progress. Would it have killed the programmer to use one of the two unused buttons for this function? I mean, really!

Making matters worse is the unforgiving nature of the game. Simply touching a tuft of grass will cause your Smurf to instantly keel over! But despite glaring flaws that would doom a lesser game, Smurf still manages to be entertaining and addictive - probably because it's so tough!

The obstacles seem to be randomized so you can't simply memorize the screens. The ability to "duck" from bats and birds was novel for its time, but in later stages those things behave like homing missiles! Smurf is half idiotic and half brilliant. When all is said and done, it's about a wash. Even so, die-hard Smurf fans can safely bump the grade up by a letter. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

You might mistake this for Asteroids at first glance, but Space Fury has nifty weapon power-ups that set it apart. Before each game you're greeted by a charming alien with a single eye and a translucent bald head. He mocks you with text that scrolls across the bottom of the screen, and when the game ends he returns to rate your performance. During each wave enemy ships float around the screen and merge to form larger ships - like Asteroids in reverse!

The left button is used to thrust and the right one fires. If you find this scheme uncomfortable (like I did), you can blame the poorly-designed controller (like I did). Since many enemies zero in on you like heat-seeking missiles, it's not a bad idea to keep moving. Between stages you dock with harnesses that augment your firepower forward, to the sides, or to the back.

Space Fury is fast and challenging, and the colorful, star-shaped explosions look nice. There's also a cool musical motif that plays before each stage which has an intergalactic ring to it. What brings Space Fury down to earth is its choppy animation and loose collision detection. When a lot of objects are on the screen the frame-rate drops and the quality of play falls with it. It's a little inconsistent, but as a fast-paced shooter Space Fury is enjoyable enough. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

Space Invasion is John Dondzilla's home-brew version of - you guessed it - Space Invaders. John normally does good work, but this game is bland and uninspired. The normal mode is downright boring with its solid white aliens and plodding gameplay. Your ship is tiny and the aliens move slowly - a combination that makes for lengthy games that far outlast the player's attention span.

After a few yawns, you'll be wondering when this game will end! Fortunately a "deluxe mode" is also included which adds some much-needed pizzazz. This time the aliens come in an assortment of colors and sometimes even split in two when shot. Blinking mother ships hover along the top of the screen and drop bombs that create wide explosions. Barriers allow you to seek shelter, but it's not easy to poke holes in those things.

Brief intermissions between waves depict an invader carrying a red mothership up the screen while "S.O.S.!" appears on the side. What the hell is that supposed to mean? There are glitches as well, including one where the aliens can drift off the right side of the screen and make a total mess of the score display! I know the Colecovision needs a decent Space Invaders game, but this, my friends, is not the answer. © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.

This generic platform game doesn't completely suck, but it comes close. The idea is to guide an astronaut around a series of platforms (connected by ladders) imprisoning aliens in holes. The left button is used to dig the hole with what appears to be a chicken leg. When an alien falls in, the right button fills it back up, causing the alien to drop out of the bottom and die. Dropping one alien onto another is a good strategy, and the tougher creatures need to fall through several floors to be killed.

Space Panic doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and it plays like Dig Dug in slow motion. Sure it's challenging, but that's mainly due to the flaky controls. For some reason you can't dig when in close proximity to a ladder, which severely limits your options. There are some pleasant musical effects, but the graphics are downright boring. I've heard some gamers defend this, but Space Panic did not appeal to me at all. The instructions contain an extra piece of paper with "Additional tips", a sure sign that customers were having difficulty grasping the concept. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

Few games scream "ARCADE EXCITEMENT" like Spy Hunter. In addition to being a faithful translation of the arcade hit, this gives you an excuse to drag out those gigantic, ridiculous Super Action Controllers. Spy Hunter is an action-packed vertical-scrolling car shooter. As you tear up the highway you'll try to dodge civilian vehicles while running bad guys off the road or shooting them with your front-mounted machine guns.

The further you position yourself up the screen, the faster you go, creating an exciting risk-reward dynamic. After blasting a car you'll want to quickly swerve to avoid its smoldering wreckage. A red truck occasionally pulls up alongside you, outfitting your car with extra weapons like oil, smoke, or a heat-seeking missile.

It's possible to equip multiple weapons, and that's where the Super Action Controller comes into play. A standard controller requires you to use the keypad to unleash special weapons, which can be awkward in the heat of battle. The Super Action Controllers however have those big-ass Fisher Price buttons on the grip, allowing you to easily dispense your weapon of choice.

Considering its age, Spy Hunter has a lot of depth. The road periodically branches and enemies are randomized so no two games are the same. You can even transform into a speedboat for a high-speed shootout on the water! The Peter Gunn theme that blares in the background adds a gangster flavor.

There are subtle graphical touches like the "muzzle flash" of your machine guns, and when you bump a car on the bridge it breaks through the guardrail and splashes into the water! Details like that make all the difference. I played this Spy Hunter so much that it gave me a blister! That's a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

Despite its release by a minor third party publisher, Squish-Em Sam is a quality title that pushes the system's sound capabilities to the limit. Squish-Em Sam's main selling point is its brief digitized voice samples that play periodically throughout the game. The Colecovision console was never known for its audio prowess, so Sam's rudimentary voice synthesis was a real treat in the early 80's.

The gameplay involves climbing a building, hanging from girders, then stomping on critters that crawl on each level. I love the crunchy noises the bugs make when you "squish-em" although Sam's high-pitched, chipmunk voice is kind of a turn-off.

Squish-Em Sam could have gotten by on novelty value alone, but in fact it's a very enjoyable game. Besides killing bugs, you must also avoid falling objects like bricks, hammers, televisions, fire hydrants, and the obligatory kitchen sinks. Sam's graphics are only average and the bugs look pixelated, but its addictive gameplay makes it worthwhile. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

John Dondzilla is an excellent classic game programmer, but this early effort is a rough, glitchy thing. Star Fortress was inspired by Star Castle, an arcade title so unpopular that the only home version was relegated to the Vectrex! The game puts you in command of an intergalactic battle cruiser equipped with jet propul- aw hell it's a damned triangle!

You can thrust freely around the screen, and in the center is a cannon surrounded by three concentric, rotating force fields. You can blast away at these, but the cannon will retaliate with red plasma balls that pursue you like heat-seeking missiles! They're hard to shoot down, but largely due to the awkward, inexact controls.

The collision detection is suspect, and your ship's momentum seems to defy physics. It's tempting to eliminate each shield completely, but that only causes them to regenerate. Lingering in a single spot for too long causes the cannon to unleash a single devastating blast, so keep moving. Star Fortress is sloppy but its severe challenge makes it mildly addicting. Hell, even destroying one cannon is a monumental achievement. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

This first-person Star Wars shooter looks almost exactly like the arcade version, complete with the four guns of your X-Wing on the edges of the screen. The first stage lets you blast Tie fighters to bits, and they look fantastic when they blow up. Normal ties explode into several pieces, and Vader's spins off the screen just as it does in the movie. Too bad most of your energy will be spent neutralizing their incoming fireballs.

The second stage involves shooting towers on the surface of the Death Star - a scene which I don't recall from the films. Not particularly fun, it's hard to shoot the towers and also avoid running into them. Still, it's nice how the tower tops "shatter" when blasted. The climactic trench stage is well done, but frankly not much better looking than the Atari 2600 version. Oh well, at least you can hear the Star Wars theme and R2 beeping in the background.

Upon blowing up the Death Star, you just see a quick flash and a lame message announcing, "The Death Star is destroyed". The game's main issue is the control; the cursor is slippery and difficult to aim with precision. Visually however, this game is a dead ringer for the arcade, and probably the best home version I've played. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

I remember a kid in school would always go on and on about how awesome Subroc was. In retrospect the game did boast impressive features uncommon on home consoles of the time. Just the fact it was a first-person shooter was a pretty big deal. Most games of the early 80's had you guiding a little object around the screen, but Subroc put you in the game!

In order to pull off convincing 3D you need scaling sprites so approaching objects look like they are about to hit you. The Colecovision was up to the task - if just barely! Most of the time the illusion of incoming missiles looks okay, but when things get hectic the frame rate can go south in a hurry.

Looking out over the sea is quite the view with shimmering blue water and green accents. You can move down to fire torpedoes at ships in the water, or move up to take aim at aircraft in the sky. Enemies fire their own missiles and torpedoes, which become alarmingly huge as they approach.

In the sky you'll see blue flying saucers, green fighters, floating mines, and a "command plane" boss with a bar-code shield. On the sea below you'll face white cruisers, yellow drone ships, and black "mystery ships" on the horizon, one of which resembles a pirate ship! If you play long enough, day turns to night, which is cool.

When taking aim at ships you need to "lead" your torpedoes through the water. Targets in the air need to be hit dead-on. Racking up points amidst all the explosions is fun. When enemies launch missiles at you, you can either shoot them down or keep turning until they are off the screen! That's video game logic for you; out of sight is out of mind!

Subroc is great for short sessions but it can feel like you're wrestling with the Colecovision controller the entire time. I pulled out my Colecovision Super Action Controllers which made me feel more in control and less fatigued. Still, it gets a bit tiresome. Oh well, nobody said saving the world was going to be easy. © Copyright 2023 The Video Game Critic.

Groundbreaking for its time, Super Action Baseball never lived up to its jaw-dropping screenshots. The game shipped with two massive Super Action controllers, each with a joystick, a button for each finger built into the grip, and a 12-button keypad. There's even a little roller you can spin. This controller left no stone unturned. The only thing missing is a little organ crank.

Super Action Baseball's pitcher/batter screen continues to dazzle, depicting huge players, lifelike animation, and even runner windows. But what is the deal with these uniforms? I realize the game wasn't licensed by the MLB, but orange and purple? The audio leaves much to be desired. Between pitches all you hear is tweets and whistles, like they're playing in a freaking bird sanctuary. Is somebody making cat calls at the players?

The pitcher can throw a wide variety of pitches and even guide the ball in flight. The batter swings by moving the joystick, allowing him to determine the direction the ball is hit. I kind of like how you spin that little spinner thing on the controller to run the bases, partly because it's so strange.

The pitching screen may look dramatic but it might just offer the worst possible vantage point for the hitter. You really have to wait on each pitch to make contact, as the ball tends to slow down as it approaches the plate. An umpire who looks like Beetle Bailey appears on the screen to call balls and strikes.

Once the ball is put into play it's clear the developer spent 90% of his time on that pitcher/batter screen. The overhead field view is pretty barebones with single-colored, pixelated players that move in a choppy manner. Likewise when throwing the ball it just sort of blinks from one spot to the next. Fly balls are the worst. Instead of traveling in an arc (which would have required math) they move in the shape of a triangle.

Super Action Baseball is two-player only but there are practice modes that let you brush up on your hitting and fielding. I like how there's a button corresponding to each base, making it easy to throw the ball around the horn. Those who undertake this game will have their hands full (literally), but with enough patience it is actually possible to play a competitive, semi-enjoyable game. © Copyright 2021 The Video Game Critic.

On paper, Super Action Football would appear to be the ultimate classic football game. You view the field from a raised angle as if you were a spectator. The field contains all of the proper hash marks, a scoreboard, and even referees! The detailed players actually scale slightly as they move between the foreground and background. Super Action Football is great until you try to play the damn thing.

You need to use the oversized Super Action Controllers, which have about 73 buttons, levers, and spinners (give or take). They're actually quite ergonomic if you're an alien from the Zorgon system with three heads and nine arms. The game comes with two thick manuals. One is the instructions, and the other is a playbook that's thicker than a real playbook! Setting up a simple pass play is a mind-boggling experience, requiring you to enter about five numeric codes.

Then you hike the ball and things get complicated. Your players don't move on their own, so you'll need to individually position your receivers and blockers one at a time. Adding insult to injury, these guys move so slowly that you might mistake this for the Senior Citizen Football League! In the meantime your linemen are all standing around like a bunch of statues.

The act of throwing a pass requires you to press a non-intuitive combination of buttons - in conjunction with rolling the spinner! The ball moves with no regard to physics, and the animation is horribly choppy. There's only one reason to play this with friends, and that's from the hilarity derived from relentlessly mocking it. Super Action Football may just be the most ambitious and least playable football game ever conceived. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

For some reason I was expecting Super Cobra to be a complete dud, but it really isn't all that bad. This side-scroller puts you in command of a helicopter, navigating narrow caverns while shooting down rockets and bombing fuel dumps. You can fire forward in a rapid-fire manner, but your range is severely limited. Bombs can only be dropped one at a time, but they do fall rapidly. The helicopter looks somewhat cheesy, but in general the graphics are crisp and clean with surprisingly smooth scrolling. Steering is never a problem, even through the narrowest passages.

It sounds like a fine translation, but something's missing, and it took me a while to put my finger on it. Oh yeah - where the heck are the explosions!? I'm sorry, but it's not nearly as satisfying when you bomb a cannon and it simply disappears. Give me some random pixels or an asterisk at least! Other issues include erratic collision detection and a low level of difficulty. With only one skill level, I played this until my hand hurt. Super Cobra is respectable, but I really wish Parker Bros. had gotten off of their lazy asses and applied more polish to this one. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

As the pack-in game for CollectorVision's Phoenix system, Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death is pretty great. Its elaborate intro boasts colorful animated scenes and excellent music. You play a cartoon explorer forging through Indiana Jones-style caverns loaded with hazards, creatures, and treasure. The game is pure pick-up-and-play fun with short levels and a simple four-digit password system.

Each stage offers a new set of contiguous rooms that grow in complexity as you progress. You'll leap between platforms, climb vines, and fight monsters. The animation is very smooth as you hurl your yellow boomerang weapon at bats, frogs, blobs, and chained ghosts. You can even throw it while hanging off a vine.

Caverns of Death is exciting. You'll collect artifacts like skulls, diamonds, and idols to be placed on pedestals, causing new sections to open. The game doesn't try to overthink things, with puzzles that are very straightforward. Sometimes during the course of a stage you'll have to deal with rising lava which adds a real sense of urgency.

The controls could be better. Why did they have to assign jump to the left button and throw to the right? After decades of gaming, every fiber of my being wants to do the opposite! Death by pressing the wrong button is almost as bad as death by a drop of water, and yes, that is a thing. Sydney's death animation is pretty lame as he just sort of bounces off the screen. On the other hand, watching skeletal ghosts dissipate is an amazing sight.

Being able to safely fall from any distance is a real time-saver, but I wish enemies didn't regenerate when I re-enter a room. Grabbing vines is a big part of the game, but your grab can fail to register at the worst time - like when lava is nipping at your heels. At the end of each stage the game tallies your bonus points and displays a password as Sydney "ponders" something he desires... like a pint of beer. Control issues aside, Sydney and the Caverns of Death is a fresh new adventure combining the best of the old and new. © Copyright 2021 The Video Game Critic.