Street Racer

The Good
Jet Shooter was the best part of this cart. And Scoop Ball made me use my imagination. As a whole, the concept was a great idea for one of the first games ever made...

The Bad
...but unfortunately it just gets muddled down by blocky graphics, terrible sounds, too easy/simplistic gameplay, and just not a very good experience all around.

Also, it's quite possible to get stuck against the walls if you have to go all the way up against them. Staying in the middle is hard, but imperative.

The Bottom Line
Street Racer is not just one game, but 27 games in one. These games all share the same basic programming style, but are just different variations of that style. So reviewing this game as a whole isn't really fair. Instead, we'll have to break down each game in the cart and act like it's just a big collection, because in all honesty that's what it is. Three things stay the same though: the paddle moves left and right while the button accelerates or shoots (Jet Shooter), player three shares the same side as player one and player four shares the same side as player two, and the screen stays static (except for dodgem). The goal also stays the same: pass (or shoot) as many objects as possible up to a maximum of 99 in around 2 minutes and 45 seconds. While there is no timer, I've timed each game four or five times to try and figure out the length of each game. The two differences are Number Cruncher and Scoop Ball, which are explained later.

Games 1-6: Street Racer; 1 - one-player, 2 - two-player, 3 - three-player, 4 - four-player, 5 - two-player hard, 6 - four-player hard. Control a race car and compete against either the computer or some friends to claim the title "King of the Road". The graphics are passable. Cars look like cars and the big line down the middle is easily seen as an impassable lane. The sounds are "dun dun" (crash), "bleep" (point-getting), and a kind of retarded chainsaw while moving. It's easy to play, but alone might not be the best way to play it. Always have a friend or 3 handy for this one, and compete to see who's the best street racer. Once that's found out, you might not come back for more.

Games 7-12: Slalom; 7 - one-player, 8 - two-player, 9 - three-player, 10 - four-player, 11 - two-player hard, 12 - four-player hard. Control a... skier? Or maybe it's two sticks with a bug on it, I can't tell. Anyway, control the thing as you go skiing... uphill... and slaloming through... walls? Okay this game is a bit easier than Street Racer, but you can't tell what anything is except the snow. Because snow is white and that's okay. The crash sound is the same, but instead of a bleep for each successful slalom, Atari tried to mimic the actual slalom sound and came close, but instead of slaloming through snow it sounds like ice. As far as moving, there is no sound. You might just be the single quietest slalom person in existence. This game goes pretty fast, but again is only really fun the first couple of times you play it.

Games 13-16: Dodgem; 13 - one-player, 14 - two-player, 15 - one-player hard, 16 - two-player hard. This is the only game where you can actually move up the screen instead of back and forth at the bottom, and it really makes this the most difficult game on this cart because while moving up, you have to avoid moving potholes that seem to be out to ruin your Sunday drive. Yes you can get hit at the very top of the screen, which will put you back down to the bottom of the same screen, and it is also possible to get hit coming out from the bottom. The graphic of the car looks like Street Racer but with a circle by the front wheels to make it look like a regular car. The sound of chainsaw acceleration also returns from Street Racer, but the crash sound is now the Atari Sound (play any regular Atari game you want, you know that sound is there every time). Advancing to the next screen just creates a barely audible "blip", kinda like it's no big deal. Unfortunately, this whole game seems like it's no big deal except for the slightly advanced difficulty.

Games 17-20: Jet Shooter; 17 - one-player, 18 - two-player, 19 - one-player hard, 20 - two-player hard. A shooter game. Yeah cool, right? A jet plane has to shoot down other planes (though they look like a capital T that got stabbed about 1/4 of the way up). There's no controlling the speed here, the game puts you at max speed the whole time and all you do it shoot. And you better have damn good aim too, because you get one bullet on screen at once, and if you miss you're almost sure to crash. Although if you have good aim, this game can take the least amount of time to finish. The sound is the same as Street Racer, and shooting the plane has the bleep sound as well, but crashing sounds awesome. A half-second explosion means business. This might be the funnest game on the cart, but sadly, that's no saying much.

Games 21-24: Number Cruncher; 21 - one-player, 22 - two-player, 23 - three-player, 24 - four-player. No matter how hard I've tried, I can't understand this game, even though it's the easiest on the cart. You are a member of the Number Crunchers Motorcycle Gang, and for some reason you really hate numbers. Run over every number you see but be careful because sometimes you just crash when you hit one; I guess it took steroids. The only numbers you see are 2s, 4s, and 6s, and they show up in no conceivable pattern, but for each number you hit you get that equivalent in points, which means this game can go really fast and you won't know what hit you. The sounds are the same as Street Racer, and when you run over a number it actually makes a crunching sound. If you know how to play this correctly, you might come back more than twice. Otherwise, stick with Jet Shooter.

Games 25-27: Scoop Ball; 25 - two-player, 26 - three-player, 27 - four-player. Well... this time around you're a really retarded-looking key avoiding upside-down Space Invaders trying to collect +s and feed them to alien octopi. At least, that's what it looks like (it's Atari so I'm stretching here, using my 1970s imagination). It doesn't matter, it's still not very fun, and nearly impossible while playing with four people. The sounds from Dodgem return, and so does the difficulty. Hitting the side of anything makes you crash, even the +s and alien octopi, which disguise themselves as allies. After some initial laughter at the objects given here, there's really no other reason to play this one, which might be why it's at the bottom of the heap.

The Good
Controls are easy to use and responsive. Unlike many of Atari's earliest games, this game does feel like what its supposed to represent. Fun for a little while.

The Bad
Way too easy. Sound and graphics poor, even for Atari 2600. Some of the games are strange - not in a good way. Even with the different iterations, this game provides little variety.

The Bottom Line
Street Racer basically provides several games in which you play a vehicle or other object at the bottom of the screen and you attempt to avoid or to hit other objects dropping from the top of the screen. In most of the games you can accelerate the speed of objects dropping by pressing the fire button.

In the first set of games, Street Racer, you play a race car and you attempt to avoid the cars you are passing on the street. In the second set of games, Slalom, you are crudely drawn skier attempting to go through the openings in walls (the "gates"). The third set of games, Dodgem, is actually somewhat different in that your car moves up the screen as you attempt to avoid a bouncing barrier of some sort, gaining a point for each time you reach the top of the screen without getting hit. In the fourth set of games, Jet Shooter, you are back at the bottom, but this time you can shoot, gaining a point for each enemy plane you hit. The fifth set of games, Number Cruncher, places you, oddly enough, in a motorcycle whose object is to run over numbers on the screen. (Watch out when four players are involved - according to the manual they become the "Number Crunchers Motorcycle Gang"). The last set of games is the somewhat bizarre Scoop Ball. Your strange vehicle attempts to catch ball shaped objects. Upon collecting three you can collect no more unless you strike an oddly shaped depositing vehicle. Try not to strike the oddly shaped other Scoopers, they are of no use to you.

Initially, this cart does provide some fun. Unlike others in Atari's initial release of carts, this game does provide an authentic feel. Unsophisticated, yes, but this game did feel like a car race to me. The action, moreover, while simple, is initially amusing. Basic dodging and shooting, but with a feeling of purpose.

That said, this cart is ultimately rather disappointing. You will likely find as I did that this game quickly loses its challenge. Perhaps two or three times through each game variation will have you maxing out the scores. This game also fails to retain its playability. While Atari has provided several variations on its theme, they are ultimately quite repetitive - more changes in graphics than changes in action. These two issues results in a game that doesn't spend much time plugged into the machine. I played it, maxed out the scores and became bored within an hour. If your tolerance for poor graphics and sound is less than mine, your playtime will probably be even shorter.

The Good
Unlike Indy 500, another early racing game from Atari, you get to steer your race car with the Controller knob. The driving is much easier to control. You only have to worry about the acceleration and the left-right movement of the vehicle.

The game offers interesting features, such as the possibility for up to four players. Multi-player games offer more challenge, but playing single turned out better than I expected. The different variations take you on a racing track, a ski trip, and even a jet combat. I personally enjoyed the Jet Shooter game for two players, but the best thrill remains the Scoop Ball for four players, where you play in teams to catch balls and deposit them into a giant Scooper.

The Bad
The sound of the race cars is not much different from Indy 500, a good chainsaw rumbling that attacks your auditory nerve. The other games feature less aggressive sounds, though the swoosh of the skis in Slalom didn't convince me at all. Graphically, there is no big innovation here. We can only guess the kind of vehicle we control: though the race car is real enough, the skiers look quite odd. But for practical purposes, it doesn't matter that much.

Unfortunately, despite the variety of games Street Racer provides, the principle is always the same. The tracks are always on a straight line and you simply have to move horizontally to avoid-catch-dodge some object.

The Bottom Line
All things considered, this simple game will provide immediate fun. However, the replay potential is rather low, and the game winds up too soon on your used-to-be-fun shelf.