Pac-Man (1980)

An interesting thing that I noticed is that of all the games I've reviewed already, Adventure and this game, Pac-Man, are the only two that don't involve you shooting the hell out of people/aliens/tanks/missiles. I've also noticed that everything else about Pac-Man doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

You tell me about one Pac-Man interpretation, and I'll show you ten more.

I'm not sure where to begin with Pac-Man. You're a yellow ball running around munching on smaller yellow balls or various fruits while evading multicolored ghosts. Unless you can get to the bigger yellow balls that apparently lets you eat the ghosts, these ghosts don't just pass through and leave you sitting on the ground covered in ectoplasm. You actually become possessed and eat yourself alive. Or something to that tune.

I was not prepared for this anarchy!

Why is this game fun? Because we like being the mice running around in the maze looking for the cheese? If you ask B.F. Skinner we are. We like being rewarded (getting a high score, reaching the kill screen, etc.) for certain actions (playing the game) especially if our reward is given in random increments (or just not guaranteed unless we try again). Dying in Pac-Man is easy because there's only one way to combat the enemy; problem is it's limited to four times a round, for a short window of time, and only practical in situations when you're cornered or need a way across the maze. On top of that, eating an enemy doesn't even put them out of the game. They just return to their starting box and come right back out for revenge. That makes evading enemies that much more necessary and that requires you being able to watch the movements of four enemies simultaneously including when they're close to using the warp tunnel that can put them in real close, real fast.

Run, little dude! That's all you can do! Run!

Pac-Man has such a simple yet original concept in how the only goal is to collect all the dots but the phantasmic tormentors are, for all intents and purposes, invincible; this game becomes much more complicated and requires more coordination and strategy than initially thought because of this. It's for this reason that Pac-Man belongs in the pantheon of classic games.

That and reading into it too much is just fun as hell.

Final Judgment: 7/10

Donkey Kong (1981)

As I'm starting to notice about this list of videos games I "have" to play, there happen to be several games that I used to play as a kid that happened to be arcade/console classics. Donkey Kong is no exception. Not only is it the origin of two of Nintendo's most memorable characters, it's also more proof that arcade games were unforgiving as hell.

All that lies at the top is disappointment every time

This also goes to show evidence of how porting games can change gameplay entirely. In my day, Donkey Kong on the Game Boy was actually a combination of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) as well as original puzzles of its own. You could back flip onto your hands and then flip back to your feet, giving you a farther jump, or stay in standing on your hands to bounce certain objects, pick up and throw certain objects at enemies, and you could throw you hammer up in the air in order to resume use if caught again.

Though the resemblance is uncanny.

You'd think that those few changes wouldn't change the gameplay of the original seeing how even in the first few levels you can only use half of those abilities. You'd also be dead wrong. Tossing a hammer up to the next level was a Godsend in the Game Boy port because of how small the level was but the first time I tried playing I actually lost a guy trying to do just that. When the barrels would be two deep, being able to flip over them would have been awesome and the bouncing objects in the second level wouldn't need the amount of precision to avoid them if you could bounce them in a headstand instead. But no. Donkey Kong makes me work for every pixel leading to him.

He looked a lot smaller from down there...and all I brought was this hammer.

This really is one of the hardest games I've played though honestly is there a classic arcade game that isn't? Developers had to make sure people kept those machines full of quarters by pushing the gamer's limits and patience. Is Donkey Kong impossible without the additions in the Game Boy port? No but it tests the player in recognizing patterns and being able to make quick judgements such as doubling back or attempting to jump two consecutive barrels. The game is fun in trying to get a bit farther; it just loses appeal with me because I'm used the same challenge but with more options in approaching them.


Final Judgment: 6/10

Space Invaders (1978)

Nothing screams video game nostalgia like Space Invaders. My dad would tell me stories about this one place where you would sit down and play the game through a glass screen in the table (which made me wish all arcade games could be like that). When my dad taught me about the shoot through the barriers for cover tactic, I felt like I had been imparted the most practical wisdom a man could ever give his son. I still have a Game Boy adaptation (with new music, stage introduced enemies, boss fights, and power ups dropped randomly from the bonus UFOs), a copy for the computer with fancy three dimensional graphics, and a PSP version released for the 30th anniversary but with a more trippy, unpredictable gameplay and cool techno music. What makes Space Invaders so durable through the years is because of its simplicity.

Some things never change.

The concept is simple: shoot enemies that usually follow a certain pattern (to the left, down a row, to the right) and sometimes UFOs that provide a bonus. The more you put away, the faster they get. They reach the bottom, your dead. They hit you without a shield, your dead. Lead your shots so you can guarantee a perfect hit.

Okay. I'd buy that.

No overall story. Hardware was custom made for what was at the time unique enemy movement despite being painfully predictable. Yet this game is an arcade classic because literally anyone can pick it up and play. It's straightforward and entertaining to see how many levels you can progress. Sometimes you just can't beat a tried and true system.


Final Judgment: 8/10

Lunar Lander (1979)

Out of most of the games that continue to frustrate me, Lunar Lander is one of the worst. Not that it's really a bad game but that out of all the games that I don't like, this one almost takes the cake.

Nobody likes this kind of "winner."

Before reading about the games history, the vector graphics did not really appeal to me; though it did make it look interesting, in my opinion, they could have easily done this with a conventional graphics system for the time. After learning about it being on early computers years before making it to the arcades it did make sense, for convenience sake, to make it a direct port.

Crap, crap, crap, CRAP!

This game takes a lot of concentration, taking both the conditions you're under (gravity, atmospheric friction), the velocity of the craft, the altitude, the desired landing site, fuel level, etc. I feel like a real astronaut trying to land a spacecraft safely (and find the nearest McDonalds); for that reason, I feel totally unqualified to make a landing. At least, I get that feeling by the tenth attempt. On the training level.

No one can hear you scream in space...as you blow this landing AGAIN!!

One day I will muster the fortitude, patience, and concentration to finally land this thing anywhere and not be so bitter. Until then, I will continue to say this game is inaccessible due to its difficulty and the number of things that you have to be watching.


Final Judgment: 5/10

Battlezone (1980)

In my youth, many ages ago, I owned an original Game Boy, one of those big, black-and-green graphic relics of old. Of course I only owned a handful of games, one of which was deemed too violent for my age and consequentially banned from. And while I still hold on to several of these priceless games, both the original Game Boy and one game in particular went missing, lost to the four winds.

One day I'll send some young adventurer on a quest to find it.

The one classic I happen to be missing would happen to be the double pack Breakout/Battlezone. Breakout was straightforward and easy, thus boring and never played. Battlezone, however, was the boss of this duo. You took the perspective of a tank gunner, rotating the tank gun and moving forward and backward to evade fire from another tank or putting yourself in position to take one out. I can only imagine what this was like in the arcade cabinets; with the size of the screen of the Game Boy, it was easy to become entirely enveloped in the whole experience: watching the radar, hearing the warning that an enemy was in range, performing evasive maneuvers, taking cover behind some random geometric shape, and praying for that direct hit.

He's coming right for us!

As with other games of it's age, this game had no end, forever spitting enemy tanks your way until you eventually died on the battlefield. This only intensified the feeling of the game; the constant stream of enemies kept you on your toes and had you thinking about where the next guy was coming from and if you had run before they caught you by surprise with a clever flank or back stab. Hard to argue with a simple game that kept you busy while being pretty fun along the way.

Final Judgement: 8/10

On a side note: does Battlezone remind anyone of Space Paranoids from Tron? Or vise versa?

Tempest (1980)

A famous game in the realm of arcade gaming, Tempest became infamous for its simple gameplay and unique experience. In a downward tunnel lie enemies that climb towards you, firing their blasters at you. Your goal is to use your ship to navigate around the pit and fire your own blaster before they can make it to the top and attack you directly. You are also given a select number of Super Zappers to destroy all the ships on the screen.

Above: Your impending doom from the abyss.

Though unlike the other games reviewed so far, this one has a unique appearance due to the vector graphics that project the tunnel, ships, and blaster fire with lines. This was probably the more noteworthy aspects that really allow for the believability that enemies were coming up the tunnel in addition to being pretty freaking awesome to watch. One initial problem I had with gameplay was the fact that holding down the fire button fired an almost constant stream of lasers. Though this does make fighting the endless waves of enemies manageable, it does make early states as simplistic button mashing and holding a single direction. However, in later stages this becomes difficult and almost essential.

Soon their fire is less of a threat and instead the only reason they're alive.

Soon the tunnel starts taking on different shapes, making maneuvering much more difficult up until you are on almost flat plane that doesn't allow for circular travel. This almost makes this button mashing and constant fire useful if not necessary as the difficulty rises. Overall I'd have to say that I enjoyed playing this for its different and interesting presentation.


Final Judgment: 7/10

Missile Command (1980)

Nothing can get as straight forward and intense as the classic Missile Command. Your objective: Protect your base from incoming missiles by setting the sky on fire by firing back with the missiles you have at your disposal.

Light up the sky!

The control was as simple as point and shoot. A missile flies to the coordinate and detonates, creating an explosion that can destroy incoming projectiles. While creating a wall of explosions will work in the first few levels, later ones start requiring you to pick out targets and chain together explosions. Shooting down the random bonus aircraft or UFOs also becomes essential when they fire of a shot or two as well. As with most games at the time, Missile Command didn't ever end; it instead just fired more, faster missiles, some eventually dividing into multiple missiles or not having a contrail as to disguise its position. The game taught you fairly well to watch your missile consumption as well because, if you spend those too liberally, you could be left with none to defend yourself, leaving the cities you were trying to protect at the mercy of your enemy. The game over screen took me by surprise as well when one final, giant explosion sound filled the speakers and consumed the screen with a blinking "THE END" as if I had allowed the end of all existence in my territory.

Oh, the HUMANITY!

Honestly in this day in age, a screen like that would have put this game off the market for seizure concerns. However, I could have easily got lost in this game trying to get farther in the levels and racking up the highest score. A truly unique strategy game and a precursor in the tower defense genre.


Final Judgment: 8/10