2019/2/13: Atari 2600: Battlezone, Enduro

[VideoGameCritic]

These are two re-reviews. I've been playing them a lot lately so decided to touch up their reviews a bit. Thoughts?

[Paul Campbell]

I must not understand what the phrase "Not bad at all" means, because I have now noticed you using it twice to describe the graphics in games that I believe stand as showcase titles for the graphical capabilities of their respective systems, Battlezone and Blaster Master.

[VideoGameCritic]

Frankly, I think the color scheme of Battlezone is a little ugly, but that's just me.

[Atariboy]

Two of my very favorites.

Battlezone is such an amazing game. I'm glad I've finally given it time in recent years, since I didn't realize just how great of a game it was when I'd just play it here and there every once in a while.

I wish Robot Tank played as well as this one. Would love to see a combination of the two games. Battlezone's gameplay with Robot Tank's variable time of day and weather.

[VideoGameCritic]

Atariboy -
I was thinking too about combining Battlezone with Robot Tank. It really isn't very hard to change the weather conditions, just swap out the colors and tweak the controls slightly. I'm surprised there's never been a hack.

[lynchie137]

Both are really good games for sure. But if i had to make a choice between the two, I'd go for Enduro. To me, it has more of that all important "just one more time" quality to it than Battlezone does. Now don't get me wrong, Battlezone is a very good game indeed. And it is certainly a technical marvel for the 2600. But it seems like whenever I sit down to play it, I'll only play through it a couple times before I want to move onto something else. Whereas with Enduro, I can play that one for hours without getting bored or tired with it...

[Cafeman]

I love Enduro. It probably doesn't look like much at first glance. But it is so fun to me, more fun than any other 2600 , 5200, or 7800 racing game. After you get to day 6, it gets very challenging, but not impossible. My greatest game sessions with 2600 were playing this game and getting to day 7, 8, 9 ,10 . I'm not sure I ever got past 10. The car patterns get tight; you have to take more risks and squeeze through 2 cars in the fog for example, to pass the 300 cars.

[GTS]

The reviews are spot on; I always thought your Atari 2600 reviews were the best written ones on the site. I have no experience playing Battlezone, but I have very fond memories of Enduro.

[VideoGameCritic]

One small detail I left out of the review is how at night in Enduro the cars in the center lane have slightly different color taillights. I wonder if the designers did this to make the game a little easier?

[Retro STrife]

Last night I was playing one of my favorite 2600 games, Pressure Cooker, so I decided to give Enduro a try too while I was at it. (I've had Enduro for probably 10+ years, but didn't consider playing it until I read your review.) Pretty cool little game to play for a few rounds, but it didn't hold my interest for long. But I could see it being one of the better racing games on the system, and fun to pop in for a quick play once in awhile.

I don't have Battlezone on the 2600. Not much interest though - I've never liked the arcade game no matter how many times I play it in arcades over the years. I mean, yes, I get that graphically the arcade game must have been absolutely amazing in 1980... but as for the actual gameplay, I think it's way too slow and way too difficult (i.e., hard to control/aim and I'm always dying). I like the Red Baron flight simulator game though, which is a close cousin of Battlezone.