11. Review 2-pack! Galaxian and Donkey Kong
Lately, I've been having a lot of fun with early, simple cartridge-based games given a lack of free time for more elaborate releases. Though carts of this sort aren't always of the best quality, they're easy to quickly play and review, and the better of the selections can satisfy gamers of all ages and skill levels.
Note that I didn't say every game I reviewed would fit into that whole "good" sub-category.
First up is Atarisoft's 1984 port of the 1979 arcade shooter Galaxian. If you're unfamiliar with Galaxian: you have a ship, and there are a ton of other ships, and you have to shoot those other ships. You get three lives in which to do so. If you shoot all the ships, you go to the next level and shoot more ships. It's a very low-frills arrangement, as you may be able to tell.
The Commodore 64's color limitations are apparent in the toned-down palette of this port, as well as its resolution limitations (though the lower resolution makes enemy ships easier to hit, which might be preferable if you consider the original too much of a challenge).
You also won't be shocked to hear that Galaxian doesn't A. include music or B. match the fidelity of the sound effects associated with its arcade counterpart. This was never the appeal of the original, to be fair, but a bit of SID wizardry would've at least let the game stand out from its Atari and Coleco bretheren.
The game is also oddly insistent on having a joystick plugged into port 2 instead of port 1, which I hadn't encountered with any other games as of yet.
Most unforgivably, Galaxian unfortunately suffers from horrible slowdown, which is immediately apparent as soon as more than 1 or 2 enemy ships start to divebomb the player. One would think the AI should account for this limitation by only launching a couple of ships toward you at once, but a whole slew started to come sluggishly, choppily toward me immediately at the beginning of the second level, and I quickly realized that this was not a game that would earn itself 500 words worth of my time and energy.
At best, I've always considered Galaxian to be "less-good Galaga". Unfortunately, this version slides deeper into "less-good Galaxian" territory. While the gameplay mechanics are mostly in place, the graphic deficiencies and (more importantly) slowdown completely crater what otherwise could've been a perfectly playable adaptation of the coin-op hit. I would recommend avoiding it in favor of the myriad different versions available on home consoles and computers nowadays.
As a welcome palate-cleanser, I also played Atarisoft's 1983 take on Nintendo's classic Donkey Kong, In contrast to the failures of Galaxian, I'm of the opinion that this game does get relatively close to arcade perfection with the exception of a few notable limitations.
The graphics, while colorful and accurate in their depiction of the game's characters, are toned down slightly in from Nintendo's original release. The horizontal stretch discussed in Atarisoft's Pac-Man port is again present and negatively affects the game's feel when it comes to horizontal movement.
On the bright side, all content included in the original seems to have made its way onto Commodore's silicon. The music and sound effects are passable (and let's be honest, the original wasn't exactly too pleasing to the ear, either).
The game is every bit as challenging as its coin-operated forebearer. The collision detection in particular is even more unforgiving than the arcade version, and I had to be excessively careful not to get winged by errant barrels in the first stage. Fortunately, the game's premise is addictive as ever and more than makes up for the occasional bit of frustration - a scramble to the top of the screen, a scramble across the screen, a scramble to knock it some structural supports and watch that big dirty ape come tumbling down to the ground. How could you go wrong?
Summed up, Donkey Kong is a veritable barrel of digital monkeys and the best of Atarisoft's cartridge releases that I've reviewed thus far. Oddly, infamous really-great-game developer Ocean would take their own shot at a C64 Donkey Kong in 1986, but would fall flat on any semblance of improvement. I'd give that release a pass and check Atarisoft's version out instead. I don't think it's going to be anyone's favorite C64 game, but it'll easily earn it's place somewhere in the stack of carts sitting alongside your breadbox for years to come.
If you enjoy either of these games and want to try beating my high score, check out our new High Scores page and submit a screenshot to earn your spot in Hank's hall of fame!
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