Crossbow Reviews

7800 Rank: 12th Genre Rank: (Classic Arcade) 3rd Awards: 8th Best Gameplay Our Favorite Kick-flippin' Food Fiasco Pros: Fast and fun gameplay/ Awesome instant replay feature/ Only known home version Cons: Graphics are a little bland Chuck Chuckin' Chunks at Chumps

Overview: This still has to be one of the most original ideas to grace the arcade scene ever. This game puts you into the shoes of a young boy named Charley Chuck who really likes to eat. One day Charley decides to enter the local carnival food fight contest where the prize is a giant ice cream cone. Not much of a story...but it does provide for some rather fun and addictive game play. You control Charley and have to avoid the obstacles of ticked off chefs, randomly placed man holes and finally thrown food from the same ticked off chefs. All the while you are simply trying to get to the other side of the screen for that ice cream cone which awaits. Your not helpless however, as you can also pick up food and smack the chefs around with it as well.

Graphics: The graphics in the 7800 version are very very close to the arcade from which this is ported from. The sprites are all nice and colorful. And the animation on Charley alone is worth the cart. There are a few minor details in the 7800 version that I am not happy with. For one, even though all the food items are present (Salads, Watermelons, Spinach, Pies...etc...), many of the food items do lack some real detail. The spinach look like a pile of something you might rather flush than big green leaves. The pies look like 2600 type of graphics (No...Really!), and the chefs sadly do no have the animation or the detail that was put into the main character you play. But the ice cream does look tasty and even the drips from the melting of it are present.

Sound: I won't mention the fact that the sound on the 7800 is the same as the 2600 most of the time we all know this. But is it worth mentioning that while the 7800 sound isn't as clear or lively as the arcade, it does have all the sound there. The short fanfare of "Charge!" will sound just before each round begins and there is a semi convincing "gulp" when you eat the ice cream. Only real issues with sound I have is that all the food sounds the same when thrown. To me Watermelon chunks should sound different than say...a pie splat would be. Also the sound that Charley makes as he walks around is a tad on the annoying side after a while. All in all the sound is complete and fits in the game well.

Gameplay: Here is a strong point to the game. I mean how cool is it to throw food at enemies in a game!!! Plus the game play is very simple and easy to pick up. You control Charley using the joystick. He will automatically grab food as he passes over it where it will appear in his hand ready to fire. You start walking towards your target chef of choice...press fire to toss. Smack! one chef out of the way!

Interpretation: The 7800 port of this arcade classic is one of the better ones done for this console. The graphics are very close to the arcade. The sound is there. The addicting gameplay. Atari even left in the "Instant Replay" feature which will display your whole round played with some cheesy slapstick music in the background for whenever you kick mucho chef booty.

Value: The game keeps you coming back since the difficulty will increase to some insane speeds in the later levels! Plus the boards change randomly. The manholes the chefs appear out from can also open on you unpredictably and are scattered around random on the play field. In addition difficulty is made more interesting by the fact that the amount of food on the screen will change and while your trying to dodge the food and slam some back the ice cream is slowly melting away. Plus there is a really neat feature in that you can always select your starting difficulty level and even the starting round. Two player is present in this game but it is of the standard 1 person plays...dies...next person plays style of rotation. I think it would have been really cool if Atari had added cooperative or competitive simultaneous 2 player action in this game. Imagine food fight dueling trying to grab the ice cream in the center of the screen. It surprises me this wasn't done since Atari did do this very thing in many of their other port overs to the 7800.

Overall: Notice my average score in my tilt? While the 7800 version is dead on to the arcade. I am not a big fan of these simpler games. My opinion is that the 7800 could do far more than this and that this game while accurate simply isn't ground breaking. Perhaps if they had included the 2 player options I spoke of, then I would feel different. This game is solid though and it has all the action and gameplay of the original arcade. If your a fan of those simple no thinking required arcade games like Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, then you owe to yourself as a 7800 owner to get this game.



Other Reviews:
Video Game Critic: A
The Atari Times: 9 out of 10
Digital Press: 8 out of 10
CV's Atari 7800 Panoramic Froo-Froo: 4.0 out of 5.0 (Very Good)
JoseQ's Emuviews: 7.1 out of 10



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