Ladybug-INTV

[Alienblue]

Ladybug-Intellivision A-

Someone asked the Critic to review the Intellivision Ladybug but since he frowns on owning EVERY version of every game, I doubt that will happen-so I'll review my cart (sorry I don't have a photo).

LADYBUG On Colecovision is what sold me on the unit. In 1982 I had never even seen a Ladybug coin-op, but the home version on CV featured (for the time) BEAUTIFUL graphics and animation, and so much variety-skulls, hearts, letters, 9 different insects and up to around TWENTY different prizes! VCS Pac-Man looked pathetic, heck, the coin-op pac -Man looked pathetic!THIS was a game worth 35 bucks!

I won't cover the gameplay too much since the VGC already has. I'll just point out the differences here.

Sound: IDENTICAL to Colecovision and the coin-op!

Controls: Not great but tolerable. The disc is slippery but it is much easier to control your bug than the crook in LOCK N'CHASE.

Graphics: A bit worse than they needed to be (Coleco was notorious for this). The bugs, as one magazine said, "look like a bunch of matchsticks... your Ladybug looks like a moldy strawberry!...skulls smirk like happy faces on a bad day!" All the little details are gone, but most everything is at least recognizable-to be honest it doesn't look as good as the recent VCS game in terms of sprites BUT the alphanumerics are nice and big, the flowers are real "X"'s instead of dashes and the color jumps off the screen. Overall, just "acceptable".

Gameplay: ALMOST everything from the arcade/Colecovision games are included: all the different (funny looking) bugs, all the different prizes, doors, skulls,hearts etc... the only difference
is the letters... they still cycle through colors, but eating orange ones only gives you 800* points, you CANNOT spell "SPECIAL", only "EXTRA" for an extra bug ( in the arcade spelling "Special" got you a free game, on Colecovision it got you a bonus vegetable harvest screen)... again, an acceptable loss.

I believe this to be THE best maze game ever, and of course THE best maze game on Intellivision, despite the losses in the conversion. If you have an INTV, I "Heart"ily reccomend this!

[chrisbid1]

the intellivision controller is bad, but the disc works a lot better than the coleco nub, the 5200 analog stick, and the painful 7800 stick. frankly, the fire buttons are what sink the intv controller more than the disc

and yes, ladybug is very cool on the INTV, as is Pac Man

[Alienblue]

Ladybug is best on Colecovision because you Don't HAVE to use the CV nub. Just plug in a 2600 stick of your choice, like WICO!