Odyssey 2 Reviews M-R

Mean Santa for the Odyssey 2 makes a good first impression with large multicolored sprites, smooth animation, and a scenic city skyline. Compared to its Atari 2600 cousin this Mean Santa is slower but a little more involved. On the first screen you steer Santa around on a sled guided by a purple mule. I like the look of those dark skyscrapers but the idea of avoiding chunks of frozen precipitation doesn't make much sense. Except for the trees scrolling across the bottom of the screen you might not realize Santa was moving. If you have the voice synthesizer equipped you're treated to a "human beatbox" rendition of Jingle Bells. By the end of a stanza a house appears on the lower right, and you land of it to advance to the second screen. Now the challenge is to navigate Santa through a maze while collecting holiday items like dolls, cookies, toy planes, and candy canes. If you touch the edge of the maze you're transported back to the center of the screen. Most of the time it's annoying, but sometimes it's good strategy as it can prevent you from having to backtrack. The Odyssey 2 controller is responsive but its springy feel makes it hard to turn with precision. At least you can run by holding in the button, which turns out to be a real time-saver. The scoring system is unusual. The goal is to visit 16 houses in the shortest amount of time, but that can take a while! By the time you reach the 13th house or so the game starts to feel a little tedious. Voice effects include a creepy chuckle when Santa lands on a roof and "that's easy" whenever he snags an item. There's no such thing as a quick game of Mean Santa on the Odyssey 2 but around the holidays at least I consider it time well spent. © Copyright 2017 The Video Game Critic.

Obviously inspired by Electronic Art's Archon (Atari XE, 1983) and taking its name from that cheesy Styx song, Mr. Roboto delivers some of the most entertaining two-player action you'll experience on any classic console, much less the Odyssey 2. Each player controls a set of robots on a grid, protecting their respective "CPU". The CPUs resemble a monitor with Matrix-inspired green characters moving down them - nice touch! The game itself is a superb combination of strategy and reflexes. Players take turns moving their robots one square at a time, and can also inject "viruses" into opposing robots to slow or weaken them. When two robots attempt to occupy the same square, they are transported to a "combat screen" where both run around shooting at each other while avoiding star-shaped "power surges". The last robot standing wins the square. Should a robot reach the opponent's CPU, he must then navigate a totally new screen with shifting "firewalls" and firing cannons (controlled by your opponent). For an Odyssey 2 title, this is remarkably sophisticated, but it's the audio that really steals the show. The "voice" prompts you during each turn, and during battles, it shouts funny lines like "Mercy, run!" and "Owww stop!" To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this derivative title, but my friends could not get enough of it. The contests are not only highly competitive, but often border on hilarious. Mr Roboto even offers an options screen and a solid single-player mode with respectable AI. Simply put, if you own an Odyssey 2 and don't own this cartridge, there's something wrong with you. IMPORTANT NOTE: Although everyone loves this game, I had to dock Mr. Roboto a half-grade due to some technical issues which may or may not be limited to my system. The cartridge is very temperamental when used with the voice module. It has to be inserted a certain way, and is prone to locking up during games. © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.

Is Pick Axe Pete a legitimate classic or a poor-man's Donkey Kong? That depends on who you ask, but few can argue that this game is hard as balls. You begin in the center of seven platforms. Three doors are scattered about, but you can't enter without a key. You can drop unharmed between levels, and ladders periodically appear so you can climb. Bounders are continuously rolling and bouncing all over the place. Fortunately this guy Pete is one nimble bastard. Using various joystick/button combinations you can duck, jump, somersault, and roll to safety. The animations that accompany these moves are very smooth and pleasing to the eye. Pete begins with an axe that whacks away continuously like the hammer in Donkey Kong. By jumping, you can even smash boulders on the level above you. This axe wears out over time, but a replacement will sometimes appear at the bottom of the screen. A key occasionally floats to the top, and this is your ticket to the big points. If you can snag the key and enter a doorway, you're awarded a bonus and as you watch Pete perform a series of calisthenics. You're then transported to a new screen, and while most look very similar, there is a pitch-black stage that's extra difficult. What makes Pick Axe Pete so hard is the fact that, like most Odyssey 2 games, you only have a single life. You have to be really focused to rack up a high score, since one false move will do you in. My friend Scott jokingly refers to this game as "Pick Ass Pete". Man, that guy is so immature... and hilarious!! Scott also claims that Pete looks "just like Jumpman's older brother." You have to keep your sense of humor when playing something like Pick Axe Pete, because a game this tough can break your will. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

It's always exciting to see how much power today's programmers can squeeze out of ancient consoles. Piggyback Planet contains two elements you rarely (if ever) see in an Odyssey 2 game: multiple screens and a huge (albeit blocky) boss. On the first screen you move a ship along the left edge, shooting at enemy ships flying up and down the screen. The audio is sparse but glistening blue stars provide a nice backdrop. Holding in the fire button engages auto-fire, and if you find a good spot you can pick off aliens without even moving. Aliens do fire back, but their missiles are so big and slow that they're not really a factor. You can activate a shield, but it's so unnecessary I always forget I have it. The second screen features a massive boss ship that consumes the entire right half of the screen. It unleashes huge laser blasts and hurls heat-seeking rings toward you in predictable patterns. You destroy "Big Boss Blu" by shooting him 25 times in his clearly-defined weak spot. The next time bosses convene for a conference I would suggest that one of their sessions be entitled "Hiding your Weak Spot: A Secret to Success". The battle can get pretty intense because you only have one life, so one false move means game over. On a technical level Piggyback Planet is exceptional, but its gameplay could benefit from some fine-tuning. The first screen doesn't get challenging until the second or third waves. The boss fights are extremely repetitive as you alternate between shooting his weak spot and dodging his attacks. The difficulty is too low, and the early waves just seem to drag on. The boss destruction scene is underwhelming, and I have no idea what the title of this game means. Piggyback Planet has enough razzle-dazzle to attract Odyssey 2 fans, but the bottom line is that this game could have been a lot more fun. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.

I know these Odyssey games tend to re-use the same character shapes over and over, but no way is that generic "man" shape going to pass as Popeye! Even worse looking is Bluto - that big, blocky, green thing looks more like Frankenstein. This is one sad-looking version of the popular arcade hit. I didn't even recognize this game. At least Olive Oyl looks somewhat respectable (in a pixilated kind of way), and the things she tosses do look like hearts -- if you tilt your head a certain angle. There are some tiny stairs on the lowest level, but to reach the higher platforms you'll need to utilize the "elevators" (which look like division signs) moving vertically on each side of the screen. Although the graphics truly suck, the gameplay really isn't a far cry from the original game. You move across platforms, collect hearts, eat spinach, and punch Bluto off the screen every now and then. Bluto at least makes an effort; he jumps around, swats at you, and throws things, but overall he's not too bright. You can loiter around the bottom level collecting hearts for quite a while before he finally gets a hold of you. Unlike other incarnations of Popeye, this has only one screen. Reaching new screens was a major appeal of the arcade game, so this shortcoming is a major flaw. At least Parker Bros. managed to incorporate the part where you can drop a bucket on Bluto's head, but it's difficult to execute and really not worth the effort. Also included is a two-player mode where the second player controls Bluto. The sound effects are decent and include a nice rendition of the Popeye theme. Popeye for the Odyssey is hideous for sure, but if the graphics don't scare you off you're in for a fair amount of arcade action. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Wow, this game gets an A+ for effort! Part board game and part video game, Quest for the Rings comes with a nice game board, finely-crafted plastic and metal "tokens", a keyboard overlay, and an oversized, beautifully illustrated manual. Heck, even the box looks like a work of art. Evidentially a lot of resources went into creating the elaborate maps and engraved tokens. Too bad they didn't spend more time on THE FREAKIN' VIDEO GAME! Geez, you'd think it was an afterthought or something! Quest is a two-player cooperation game. Players traverse the map on the game board, switching over to the video game to hunt for rings in monster-infested dungeons. There are four characters to choose from: a sword-wielding warrior, a spell-casting wizard, a wall-penetrating phantom, and a "changling" who can turn invisible. It's nice to have a choice but let's face it, without weapons the changling and phantom aren't much fun. Before beginning each dungeon, both characters are shown entering into a "time warp", depicted by some downright irritating visual and sound effects. There are four types of dungeons, each one screen in size. These can feature normal walls, moving walls, walls that are deadly to touch, or invisible walls. Monsters include the human-shaped orcs, giant spiders (which look like octopi), "bloodthirsts" that look like pterodactyls, and large fire-breathing dragons! These dragons put those hollow ducks in Adventure to SHAME! Unfortunately, only the orcs can be killed! In theory, a "dungeon master" is supposed to use the keyboard to specify the content of each dungeon based on board movement. But I'd recommend abandoning the board altogether and letting the computer generate random dungeons for you. Both players can work together, but the action isn't too deep. Getting a ring usually requires one player to act as a decoy. Your characters move like snails and can only attack from the side, making them highly susceptible to monsters approaching from above and below. The collision detection is highly questionable, and close proximity to a bad guy usually means death. The graphics aren't bad at all. When a large monster eats your character, he is depicted as being consumed with his legs still twitching! That's a nice touch I haven't seen in any other classic games. But ultimately Quest for the Rings just isn't very fun, and that's too bad. Despite the numerous "extras", the gameplay rarely rises above mediocrity. © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.