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Maze Craze: A Game of Cops and Robbers Retro Review
A-Maze-ing Gameplay!
Maze Craze was released for the Atari 2600 in 1978. It was released only one year after Pong for the 2600. So while it’s a simple game by today’s standards, that was par for the course at the time. That being said, the fact this game is nearly 40 years old, doesn’t mean it isn’t fun.
The gameplay consists of players controlling a red or blue little person and navigating a maze. You start on the left and make your way to the exit that is always on the right. Like many Atari games, it has many gameplay variations. Some modes make parts, or all, of the maze invisible or give you the ability to make fake walls to confuse the other player. Others modes introduce different squares that wander around the maze. You must avoid touching them or face getting slowed down or outright losing.
A mode where part of the maze is invisible.
If you read the manuals in Atari games you’ll find the background story. The story in Maze Craze is that your red and blue squares are cops navigating a maze of city streets. The other squares are armed robbers trying to get you. None of that really matters though. All you really need to know is: You need to get your little square butt to the exit before the other guy.
There really isn’t much that’s bad about the game so I have to knit-pick a little here. First, the screen that comes up when the maze resets is awful. Every time you finish a maze, it resets and briefly flashes a bunch of random colors. It’s bad enough that I could see myself getting a headache if I played it for too long, especially if its being played in the dark. Second, like I mentioned earlier, it’s a simple game. You play as a poor representation of a person, and pretty much everything else is a square. There’s no music and very little in the way of sound effects. I mean, there’s literally four different sounds in the game. A sound when you bump into a wall, one when you touch a robber, one when you exit a maze and the sound of the Officer’s footsteps. That’s it. When you’re actually playing the game it’s not that noticeable though. The lack of sounds never bothered me very much and I actually think the footsteps are a nice touch.
My brother came over recently and I decided to break out the old Atari. We ended up playing Maze Craze for half an hour. Even though the game’s pretty simple and probably in need of an epilepsy warning, we had a blast. To me this game is a great example that if the core of a game is strong, it doesn’t need Xbox graphics to be fun.
Friday the 13th: Retro Review
Killing your nostalgia
For those who have lived under a rock for the last 30 years or so, Friday the 13th is a series of slasher films in which teenagers at a summer camp get murdered in various ways by a serial killer in a hockey mask named Jason. That being said, one would think that this would be a horror game, but what it mostly succeeded in being was a generic, repetitive, frustrating side-scroller.
The game has you taking control of one of six camp counselors each with their own attributes, such as running or swimming, that they are better or worse at. Your job is to keep the teens at the summer camp alive for three days or to kill Jason three times before he kills the people you’re protecting.
The game starts you along a side-scrolling path that goes around the lake. At some point Jason will attack one of the cabins and you have to make your way along the path to the cabin and fend him off. When you enter a cabin it goes into a bizarre 3D-ish environment. The only reason I can see for this is to add a small amount of suspense because you don’t know if Jason is around the corner. When in the cabin you may or may not fight Jason. You then go back to the path and wait for Jason to attack again. Rinse and repeat.
The graphics aren’t terrible, what makes me not like them is that everything is so repetitive. There are only a handful of backgrounds and they are repeated over and over. There is also a forest in the game that you can go into and fight Jason’s mother and get the best weapon in the game. I wouldn’t recommend it however, because the forest backgrounds are all so similar that it’s near impossible to find your way out.
Even worse than the graphics is the music. The music mostly consists of a few 6 second loops that repeat constantly throughout the game. You know it’s bad when you play a game for all of thirty seconds to hear the entire soundtrack.
Some of these things could be forgiven if the game was fun to play, but it’s not. The side scrolling parts, while running from cabin to cabin around the lake, feel clunky and poorly made. The battles with Jason, which should be a highlight of the game, end up being battles of annoyance as Jason dances back and forth taking cheap shots at you.
Seriously, it looks like he’s dancing.
There are bats and zombies that spawn continuously along the path and the only weapon you have at start is a rock that’s both hard to hit enemies with and very weak. The best way to get a better weapon is, I kid you not, to jump around aimlessly. After jumping around a bunch a floating knife will appear and you can grab it. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not all bad. It’s just that the few good ideas in this game such as choosing between counselors, get drowned in a wave of bad execution and monotony.
In video games, as with movies, there are two types of bad. A few games like E.T. are so bad that they’re entertaining and then there are games that are just plain bad. Friday the 13th is the latter.
Video review of BK’s black bun “HA1loween” burger
Colored buns have been a thing overseas for awhile, but finally the U.S.A. jumps on the bandwagon. Available starting today, I made this my lunch and I think you should consider grabbing one too!
Coil Con V exclusive video review and picture gallery
The last video (for now) of the Marauder Task Force Figures
Introduction and First Review
Greetings! My name is Steve-O. You can just call me Steve-O. Most people do. I am probably one of the biggest Star Wars nerds you could find when it comes to knowing about the lore and characters of that universe. I am unique in that I am one of the fans who brazenly claims to love the Prequels and Special Editions no matter what kind of ire that gets me from the so called ‘purists’.
My other interests include the following universes: Marvel characters, DC characters, Firefly, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, Battlestar Galactica, Tomb Raider, Game of Thrones, Star Wars the Clone Wars, Vikings, Arrow, Flash, Agents of SHIELD, Supernatural, Transformers, Terminator, TMNT, The Bourne series, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Kingdoms of Amalur, World of Warcraft, Star Wars the Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, The Matrix, and so on and so forth.
And now onto my very first review since its only been out a week and I see no one else has gotten to it on the website: Avengers Age of Ultron FULL SPOILER WARNING IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE STOP READING NOW
G.I.Joe 50th Three Packs: Pics of the quality issues and some broad thoughts
Early Today I received the 50th Anniversary G.I.Joe three packs that I had pre-ordered on BBTS. I was pretty stunned at the amount of paint errors and other issues with the figs, I was prepared for the feel of more “rubbery” plastic and some errors, but I felt it was worth putting up some quick pics.
First up a preview of things to come, “melted” collar Destro.”
Joe Con 2012 Exclusive Voltar Review.
Fear the cyclops!
Voltar came in the 2012 convention set, “Operation Bear Trap” I purchased the re issue of this set while at the 2013 con, and had to check out this popular figure a bit closer. I never had this character as a child, and had no major attachment to him. In my mind that helps this review to stand more on the figure’s merits and not nostalgia alone.
Voltar consists of a new head and helmet, and lower legs from POC Beachhead placed on Rise of Cobra Accelerator suit body. An Iron Grenadier belt and sword are fitting and help him blend in with his fellow Grenadiers.
As you can see from this angle, the helmet doesn’t fit perfectly snug on the head. Continue reading
G.I.Joe Future NOIR review
G.I.Joe Future Noir is one of those obscure alternate takes that almost every property has, that many wouldn’t even know existed. Idw published the small manga sized black and white trade paper back in 2011.
it featured a young team of Joes who are sent on a mission by General Hawk. Duke commands a squad consisting of of Scarlet, Roadblock, Sci-fi (with an interesting twist) and a rookie by the name of Helix. Don’t worry, they met Snake-Eyes along the way.
The first thing you may notice is some of the unusual members on the roster. Sci-fi is no longer the laser trooper from the ARAH days, but instead is a cyborg who serves as pilot, and general computer/support for the team. His face bears a resemblance to Gambit, and his later body part switcheroo reminds me of 90’s era bad comic cyborgs. UPDATE: I initially didn’t see any ties to the classic Sci-Fi here, but Joe Nation’s Casey pointed out that Star Brigade Sci-Fi (v4) had bat like hand attachments and had been re-assigned to be a pilot.
Rathio 