8th March 2019, 1:17 AM
How about short first impressions about some Intellivision games, since I got the system last week? Well, here goes. I'll say something about the games I've played, which is mostly the more interesting-looking (and not two player only) ones that I've gotten.
Snafu - This might be my favorite Intellivision game I've played so far, at least at the moment. It's like Surround on Atari 2600 -- think Tron Light Cycles, or versus Snake -- except with four players and more. You versus three AIs is the default, though there is also a two human and two AI mode. There are a bunch of modes, some simpler ones with only the regular four-direction movement of most games in this genre, and some with eight-direction movement, which is a lot to get used to in a lightcycles game... it's good, though.
Auto Racing - This overhead racing game has decent graphics, but the controls are hard to get used to and I haven't figured out how to turn consistently at all yet, I usually just go off the side. It looks like that's a common problem people have with this game, the controls are confusing and not that good. Also there is only 2 player versus or one player timetrial, there isn't an AI opponent. For 1980 this is probably a good effort at a more realistic racing game, but the controls, with the Intellivision disc, are an issue.
Golf - This golf game tries to be more simmish than Atari 2600 Golf, and it succeeds... and thus I find it quite boring.
Space Armada - This is Space Invaders, but not as good -- there are fewer aliens, very few modes, etc. Play Space Invaders on 2600 instead, the graphics aren't as good but the gameplay is better.
Space Battle - This is an interesting game for the time, but it's one of those 2nd-gen games that's over in minutes. Either you'll win and defeat all the enemy fleets, or lose and die, but either way there's basically only one level then the game ends. Lots of 2nd-gen games are like this, if they aren't endless they're absurdly short... the industry was young and people didn't know what would work yet. The strategy bit about aiming fleets around is interesting, though the controls are a bit confusing, and the shooting works fine, but it's nothing above average overall, this game was a lot better then than it is now.
Astrosmash - This popular game is also on Atari 2600 (well, so is Space Battle, but I don't have that one for 2600, while I do have Astroblast, the 2600 version of this), and it's very simple: move left and right and shoot the asteroids as they descend. That's about it. You get extra lives so quickly that games will go on a long time, as you get lives faster than you lose them for what, like at least a half hour or more. I find the game gets boring long before that. Also, the 2600 version has paddle controls, which are better than the Intellivision disc controls here. This controls okay, but that one's better in controls... though this looks a bit better of course. Anyway, this is another average to below average game. There is something here, later in the game, but is it worth the tedium to get there?
Lock 'n Chase - One of the few arcade ports to Intellivision from Mattel, this game is a Pac-Man clone. It's a good port of the arcade game, but this game is no Pac-Man, and isn't as good as games like K.C. Munchkin or Turtles on Odyssey 2 either. I mean, it's a fine, quality game, but between the high difficulty, mediocre graphics, and sometimes tricky controls for using the locks, I doubt I'll be playing a huge amount of it. Still, decently good game I guess.
Atlantis - The Intellivision version of Atlantis has a reputation for being the best version of the game, and after playing it I can see why. Imagic's take on Missile Command plays like usual here at the start, as you fire the left and right diagonal cannons at the enemies, but instead of the straight-up center cannon of the 2600 version, here you have a spaceship that you can take off with and fly around the screen instead, directly firing left and right at the enemies. It's fun stuff and adds something to the game. Atlantis is, like most games of the era, very repetitive and is not as good as Missile Command, but it is a good game for sure, and this is a pretty good version.
Pinball - I had pretty low expectations for this one, but Pinball surprised me. For the time the ball physics are actually decent -- this plays a lot better than any 2600 pinball games I've seen -- and there are even two different screens in the table, instead of just one! It kind of looks like a pinball table, too. This is hardly some great game from a modern standpoint, but for the pre-crash era it's good.
Vectron - I've heard this game is kind of good but has very confusing controls, and well, yes, it has very confusing controls. I haven't figured them out yet, I need to find a copy of the manual to read! The games' sense of style is great, but I can't say much about the gameplay, so far all I've done is not been able to move and then get game over.
Space Hawk - This game is kind of like Asteroids, if you could fly in a large, endlessly scrolling area, looking for one or two enemy ships flying around. The controls are kind of tricky and I find navigating frustrating as there is nothing to tell you which way you should go, if you are actually chasing them and not waiting for them to attack you, but I haven't played it much and it does have some promise.
Night Stalker - This single screen action game plays a bit like a slow-paced Berzerk or Wizard of Wor, except you need to get bullets before you can fire by picking up gun powerups. Get gun powerups, shoot enemies, repeat. It's alright, but a bit slow and, of course, repetitive. Decent stuff though I guess?
Skiing - This is another one where the disc controller makes for tougher controls than you'd have on a d-pad... though the somewhat more realistic player movement than you'd see on Atari doesn't help either. As with skiing games on Atari and O2 this is a skiiing game where you head down the screen, going through gates as you go, but you'll need to line up carefully to make these gates, and it's way too easy to stop when you turn a bit too much. I'm sure there's a trick to it, but still, it's okay but fairly average I think.
Star Strike - the 'death star trench game' is pretty much that. You have to avoid/shoot enemy fighters that initially come at you from behind but then can be shot when they zoom ahead of you, while carefully timing bomb drops on the five circles you need to bomb in this trench. Timing the bomb drops is pretty hard, I haven't gotten it down yet; there is an audio cue, but you need to be lined up at just the right times, while dodging fire. Once you do get it though, the game is very short either way -- if you die that's it, game over, and if you bomb all five ports, you win, game over. Again, game length in 2nd-gen stuff is weird...
Dragonfire - This is a straight port of the 2600 game of the same name, with very few changes apart from slightly improved graphics... except that it plays less good with the Intellivision disc than it does with an Atari controller. This is a tough game even on 2600, but it's definitely harder, and less fun, here. It is still a good game, but it's not quite as good as it is on 2600 I think.
Demon Attack - Unlike the above game, Demon Attack is nicely improved over the 2600. There is now a much more detailed background environment on the screen, first, and second a boss stage has been added that isn't in the 2600 original! This game is a good shooter, if derivative (Atari actually took Imagic to court over this game, over how similar it is to Phoenix...), but it was popular then and yes, is still good.
Microsurgeon - I really have barely played this one, but I'd just like to say that the controls are pretty interesting -- you use two controllers, and move with one disc while shooting with the other. The game is somewhat complex, in that you have to move through a human body, use different medicines, and such, but the core gameplay is one of the first ever appearances of true twin-stick shooter controls in a game. (There is a better TI 99/4A version of the game, but that's the only other platform this game seems to have released on.)
Mission X - This is another port of a Data East arcade game, along with Burger Time and Lock 'n Chase. For some reason Data East was the only arcade company Mattel got rights to at the time, I wonder why; I guess Atari and Coleco locked down all the other big ones? Anyway, this game is a vertical scrolling shmup, but it has a height component, you can fly up and down... which naturally makes hitting flying enemies in front of you nearly impossible, since judging height is not going to happen. Fortunately, most targets are on the ground; you spend most of this game bombing Xevious-style, at a target in front of your ship which moves forward or back depending on your altitude. It's neat to see a scrolling shmup from '82, but this game gets old fast and the height component is not great. It's average at best.
Motocross - Another racing game, another game with hard to figure out controls. This game is better than Auto Racing, though -- it has an AI opponent option, and two control options, one a simpler 'left turns you left and right turns you right' one. Unfortunately even in that mode I find turning overly difficult here, and often don't make turns... figuring out this disc thing in games that want to use it like a wheel is not intuitive! The game is very slow too, this has aged badly. It's alright for the time but is pretty flawed.d
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (aka AD&D Cloudy Mountain) - This game has the D&D license, but it isn't really an RPG. Instead, this is a maze exploration action-adventure game, building off of games like Adventure (Atari 2600), Hunt the Wumpus (TI-99/4A), and Quest for the Rings (Odyssey 2). You wander around random mazes, collecting arrows and items and looking for exits while using those arrows to kill monsters, if you can't avoid them. The mazes are large enough that the absence of a map is kind of frustrating, and I don't really want to wander around them long enough to find all the items, but you've got to. At least there is a run button for faster movement, but eh... this game's good I guess, but I'd kind of rather play the simplicity of Hunt the Wumpus, or something better on a newer system which can do more. Still, for the time this is a solid evolution of this still-early genre, heading towards better things. The Intellivision sold itself as a more complex console with better-looking and more complicated games than other consoles, and you see that here. That doesn't make the game better though...
Beauty & The Beast - This fifth Imagic game is the only Intellivision-exclusive game of theirs that I have. This game is a Donkey Kong clone. It's far worse than arcade Donkey Kong, but holds up nicely compared to the junk that is the Intellivision version of DK... but with jumping as stiff and not good as this game has, that's not saying all that much. Some people like this game, and I do like the movement and speed, but the awful jumping holds it back. It feels very similar to the jumping in Dragon Fire, except here it's even more central to the game. Oh, and the core gameplay is really simple -- go up 3 floors by moving up windows when they open, and keep moving to new screens to get more points. It's an alright game but isn't anything above average, in terms of gameplay. The graphics are nice though.
BurgerTime - This popular Data East arcade game is highly regarded on Intellivision, but I wasn't sure how worth it this would be since I do have the better NES version. Well, it was worth getting, because yes this is a pretty good version of this game. Sure, the NES version is even better, but this is a nice-looking and well-playing version of the game and is one of the better games on this system. This isn't a game I've ever played very much of so I'm no good at it, but it has a solidly addictive quality to it here.
Frog Bog - Also known as Frogs and Flies on 2600, this first party game is another one, like Astrosmash, that might actually be better on Atari's console... odd, that; Coleco's games are always best on Colecovision and worse on Intellivision and 2600 (this is one reason I haven't bought any Coleco games for Intellivision yet, despite seeing several), but that was not always the case for Mattel. Anyway, in this very simple game, you jump back and forth between two lillie pads, trying to eat as many flies as you can during those jumps. You get points for each insect you eat. It's a very basic game, too simple really, but has at least a slightly addictive quality to it. Fortunately there is an AI opponent, though it's much better as a two player game I'm sure. The default AI is pitifully bad...
Loco-Motion - This puzzle game is a sliding tile puzzle-inspired thing. A train car is moving around a screen, and you have to slide tiles around with various tracks on them so that the train goes around all of the edges of the screen without crashing. It's harder than it might sound, but the extremely slow pace of the train's movement gets boring fast and you can't speed it up much so far as I've found, and I really don't understand the controls; why are they upside-down, I had to hold my controller upside down in order for them to make any sense... odd. This is a good effort for the time, but it is another thing where newer games like this are a lot better. I've never liked sliding tile puzzles much at all anyway, and wow is that train slow...
Tron Deadly Discs - On the easy difficulty, this game is kind of boring. It does some interesting things for the time -- it's another early twin-stick game, as you move with the stick and fire with the keypad -- but you can only shoot one disc at a time and have to wait quite a while for it to return to you, and at least as far as I've played it so far, everything about this game is a bit slow-moving. I'm sure it eventually gets hard, but aiming shots with the keypad is kind of frustrating when if you miss you have to wait so long to get another shot. You can call back your disc, and use a second controller to fire if you want, but still, this game is too slow to be fun for long. There is a Regulator boss in the game which the 2600 version doesn't have, and the shot aiming thing is much improved here too, but still, this game's pretty average.
So yeah, so far I think the Intellivision is alright, but has issues -- the game library is uneven, and the controllers take a lot of getting used to for some games. I like the look of the console, and I am glad to have it, but I definitely don't love this thing yet.
Snafu - This might be my favorite Intellivision game I've played so far, at least at the moment. It's like Surround on Atari 2600 -- think Tron Light Cycles, or versus Snake -- except with four players and more. You versus three AIs is the default, though there is also a two human and two AI mode. There are a bunch of modes, some simpler ones with only the regular four-direction movement of most games in this genre, and some with eight-direction movement, which is a lot to get used to in a lightcycles game... it's good, though.
Auto Racing - This overhead racing game has decent graphics, but the controls are hard to get used to and I haven't figured out how to turn consistently at all yet, I usually just go off the side. It looks like that's a common problem people have with this game, the controls are confusing and not that good. Also there is only 2 player versus or one player timetrial, there isn't an AI opponent. For 1980 this is probably a good effort at a more realistic racing game, but the controls, with the Intellivision disc, are an issue.
Golf - This golf game tries to be more simmish than Atari 2600 Golf, and it succeeds... and thus I find it quite boring.
Space Armada - This is Space Invaders, but not as good -- there are fewer aliens, very few modes, etc. Play Space Invaders on 2600 instead, the graphics aren't as good but the gameplay is better.
Space Battle - This is an interesting game for the time, but it's one of those 2nd-gen games that's over in minutes. Either you'll win and defeat all the enemy fleets, or lose and die, but either way there's basically only one level then the game ends. Lots of 2nd-gen games are like this, if they aren't endless they're absurdly short... the industry was young and people didn't know what would work yet. The strategy bit about aiming fleets around is interesting, though the controls are a bit confusing, and the shooting works fine, but it's nothing above average overall, this game was a lot better then than it is now.
Astrosmash - This popular game is also on Atari 2600 (well, so is Space Battle, but I don't have that one for 2600, while I do have Astroblast, the 2600 version of this), and it's very simple: move left and right and shoot the asteroids as they descend. That's about it. You get extra lives so quickly that games will go on a long time, as you get lives faster than you lose them for what, like at least a half hour or more. I find the game gets boring long before that. Also, the 2600 version has paddle controls, which are better than the Intellivision disc controls here. This controls okay, but that one's better in controls... though this looks a bit better of course. Anyway, this is another average to below average game. There is something here, later in the game, but is it worth the tedium to get there?
Lock 'n Chase - One of the few arcade ports to Intellivision from Mattel, this game is a Pac-Man clone. It's a good port of the arcade game, but this game is no Pac-Man, and isn't as good as games like K.C. Munchkin or Turtles on Odyssey 2 either. I mean, it's a fine, quality game, but between the high difficulty, mediocre graphics, and sometimes tricky controls for using the locks, I doubt I'll be playing a huge amount of it. Still, decently good game I guess.
Atlantis - The Intellivision version of Atlantis has a reputation for being the best version of the game, and after playing it I can see why. Imagic's take on Missile Command plays like usual here at the start, as you fire the left and right diagonal cannons at the enemies, but instead of the straight-up center cannon of the 2600 version, here you have a spaceship that you can take off with and fly around the screen instead, directly firing left and right at the enemies. It's fun stuff and adds something to the game. Atlantis is, like most games of the era, very repetitive and is not as good as Missile Command, but it is a good game for sure, and this is a pretty good version.
Pinball - I had pretty low expectations for this one, but Pinball surprised me. For the time the ball physics are actually decent -- this plays a lot better than any 2600 pinball games I've seen -- and there are even two different screens in the table, instead of just one! It kind of looks like a pinball table, too. This is hardly some great game from a modern standpoint, but for the pre-crash era it's good.
Vectron - I've heard this game is kind of good but has very confusing controls, and well, yes, it has very confusing controls. I haven't figured them out yet, I need to find a copy of the manual to read! The games' sense of style is great, but I can't say much about the gameplay, so far all I've done is not been able to move and then get game over.
Space Hawk - This game is kind of like Asteroids, if you could fly in a large, endlessly scrolling area, looking for one or two enemy ships flying around. The controls are kind of tricky and I find navigating frustrating as there is nothing to tell you which way you should go, if you are actually chasing them and not waiting for them to attack you, but I haven't played it much and it does have some promise.
Night Stalker - This single screen action game plays a bit like a slow-paced Berzerk or Wizard of Wor, except you need to get bullets before you can fire by picking up gun powerups. Get gun powerups, shoot enemies, repeat. It's alright, but a bit slow and, of course, repetitive. Decent stuff though I guess?
Skiing - This is another one where the disc controller makes for tougher controls than you'd have on a d-pad... though the somewhat more realistic player movement than you'd see on Atari doesn't help either. As with skiing games on Atari and O2 this is a skiiing game where you head down the screen, going through gates as you go, but you'll need to line up carefully to make these gates, and it's way too easy to stop when you turn a bit too much. I'm sure there's a trick to it, but still, it's okay but fairly average I think.
Star Strike - the 'death star trench game' is pretty much that. You have to avoid/shoot enemy fighters that initially come at you from behind but then can be shot when they zoom ahead of you, while carefully timing bomb drops on the five circles you need to bomb in this trench. Timing the bomb drops is pretty hard, I haven't gotten it down yet; there is an audio cue, but you need to be lined up at just the right times, while dodging fire. Once you do get it though, the game is very short either way -- if you die that's it, game over, and if you bomb all five ports, you win, game over. Again, game length in 2nd-gen stuff is weird...
Dragonfire - This is a straight port of the 2600 game of the same name, with very few changes apart from slightly improved graphics... except that it plays less good with the Intellivision disc than it does with an Atari controller. This is a tough game even on 2600, but it's definitely harder, and less fun, here. It is still a good game, but it's not quite as good as it is on 2600 I think.
Demon Attack - Unlike the above game, Demon Attack is nicely improved over the 2600. There is now a much more detailed background environment on the screen, first, and second a boss stage has been added that isn't in the 2600 original! This game is a good shooter, if derivative (Atari actually took Imagic to court over this game, over how similar it is to Phoenix...), but it was popular then and yes, is still good.
Microsurgeon - I really have barely played this one, but I'd just like to say that the controls are pretty interesting -- you use two controllers, and move with one disc while shooting with the other. The game is somewhat complex, in that you have to move through a human body, use different medicines, and such, but the core gameplay is one of the first ever appearances of true twin-stick shooter controls in a game. (There is a better TI 99/4A version of the game, but that's the only other platform this game seems to have released on.)
Mission X - This is another port of a Data East arcade game, along with Burger Time and Lock 'n Chase. For some reason Data East was the only arcade company Mattel got rights to at the time, I wonder why; I guess Atari and Coleco locked down all the other big ones? Anyway, this game is a vertical scrolling shmup, but it has a height component, you can fly up and down... which naturally makes hitting flying enemies in front of you nearly impossible, since judging height is not going to happen. Fortunately, most targets are on the ground; you spend most of this game bombing Xevious-style, at a target in front of your ship which moves forward or back depending on your altitude. It's neat to see a scrolling shmup from '82, but this game gets old fast and the height component is not great. It's average at best.
Motocross - Another racing game, another game with hard to figure out controls. This game is better than Auto Racing, though -- it has an AI opponent option, and two control options, one a simpler 'left turns you left and right turns you right' one. Unfortunately even in that mode I find turning overly difficult here, and often don't make turns... figuring out this disc thing in games that want to use it like a wheel is not intuitive! The game is very slow too, this has aged badly. It's alright for the time but is pretty flawed.d
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (aka AD&D Cloudy Mountain) - This game has the D&D license, but it isn't really an RPG. Instead, this is a maze exploration action-adventure game, building off of games like Adventure (Atari 2600), Hunt the Wumpus (TI-99/4A), and Quest for the Rings (Odyssey 2). You wander around random mazes, collecting arrows and items and looking for exits while using those arrows to kill monsters, if you can't avoid them. The mazes are large enough that the absence of a map is kind of frustrating, and I don't really want to wander around them long enough to find all the items, but you've got to. At least there is a run button for faster movement, but eh... this game's good I guess, but I'd kind of rather play the simplicity of Hunt the Wumpus, or something better on a newer system which can do more. Still, for the time this is a solid evolution of this still-early genre, heading towards better things. The Intellivision sold itself as a more complex console with better-looking and more complicated games than other consoles, and you see that here. That doesn't make the game better though...
Beauty & The Beast - This fifth Imagic game is the only Intellivision-exclusive game of theirs that I have. This game is a Donkey Kong clone. It's far worse than arcade Donkey Kong, but holds up nicely compared to the junk that is the Intellivision version of DK... but with jumping as stiff and not good as this game has, that's not saying all that much. Some people like this game, and I do like the movement and speed, but the awful jumping holds it back. It feels very similar to the jumping in Dragon Fire, except here it's even more central to the game. Oh, and the core gameplay is really simple -- go up 3 floors by moving up windows when they open, and keep moving to new screens to get more points. It's an alright game but isn't anything above average, in terms of gameplay. The graphics are nice though.
BurgerTime - This popular Data East arcade game is highly regarded on Intellivision, but I wasn't sure how worth it this would be since I do have the better NES version. Well, it was worth getting, because yes this is a pretty good version of this game. Sure, the NES version is even better, but this is a nice-looking and well-playing version of the game and is one of the better games on this system. This isn't a game I've ever played very much of so I'm no good at it, but it has a solidly addictive quality to it here.
Frog Bog - Also known as Frogs and Flies on 2600, this first party game is another one, like Astrosmash, that might actually be better on Atari's console... odd, that; Coleco's games are always best on Colecovision and worse on Intellivision and 2600 (this is one reason I haven't bought any Coleco games for Intellivision yet, despite seeing several), but that was not always the case for Mattel. Anyway, in this very simple game, you jump back and forth between two lillie pads, trying to eat as many flies as you can during those jumps. You get points for each insect you eat. It's a very basic game, too simple really, but has at least a slightly addictive quality to it. Fortunately there is an AI opponent, though it's much better as a two player game I'm sure. The default AI is pitifully bad...
Loco-Motion - This puzzle game is a sliding tile puzzle-inspired thing. A train car is moving around a screen, and you have to slide tiles around with various tracks on them so that the train goes around all of the edges of the screen without crashing. It's harder than it might sound, but the extremely slow pace of the train's movement gets boring fast and you can't speed it up much so far as I've found, and I really don't understand the controls; why are they upside-down, I had to hold my controller upside down in order for them to make any sense... odd. This is a good effort for the time, but it is another thing where newer games like this are a lot better. I've never liked sliding tile puzzles much at all anyway, and wow is that train slow...
Tron Deadly Discs - On the easy difficulty, this game is kind of boring. It does some interesting things for the time -- it's another early twin-stick game, as you move with the stick and fire with the keypad -- but you can only shoot one disc at a time and have to wait quite a while for it to return to you, and at least as far as I've played it so far, everything about this game is a bit slow-moving. I'm sure it eventually gets hard, but aiming shots with the keypad is kind of frustrating when if you miss you have to wait so long to get another shot. You can call back your disc, and use a second controller to fire if you want, but still, this game is too slow to be fun for long. There is a Regulator boss in the game which the 2600 version doesn't have, and the shot aiming thing is much improved here too, but still, this game's pretty average.
So yeah, so far I think the Intellivision is alright, but has issues -- the game library is uneven, and the controllers take a lot of getting used to for some games. I like the look of the console, and I am glad to have it, but I definitely don't love this thing yet.