During their successful reign as one of the premier game designers for the 2600 VCS, Activision never produced one single arcade-converted title. All of their games were fresh, original attempts at creating quality carts that were as exciting to look at as they were to play. Certainly, some of the games were inspired by arcade titles, most notably Steve Cartwright's Megamania, a Space Invaders simulation, and Frostbite, a quasi-Q*Bert clone. At any rate, as the dawn of the age of Atari came to a sad and pathetic end in the early nineties, even Activision turned to the arcade as a source of material. Their three conversions, Kung Fu Master, Double Dragon, and Commando, are, in this author's humble opinion, three of the most poorly converted coin-ops available on the 2600.
What, in the name of sanity, went wrong? Activision's track record, up until that point, had been, shall we say, flawless. Synonymous with flashy graphics and quality games, it seemed that they could do no wrong. Perhaps my favorite game of all time for the 2600 VCS is H.E.R.O., as playable today as it ever was, and even more playable than most of the trash available for today's systems. However, with the release of the aforementioned subjects of this edition of the column, Activision dropped the baton in a big way.
Double Dragon, the popular sequel to Taito's Renegade,
expanded on the original gameplay by adding simultaneous two player
action. A now all-too familiar plot, the object was to exact revenge
on a rival gang of thugs who kidnapped the heroes' woman at the
outset. Made available for the 2600 after Nintendo had already
entered the game domestically, DD is not only a horrible translation
of the coin grabber, but is one of the worst all around games
ever designed for the 2600.
Adding insult to injury is the fact the the graphics are about as horrible as they come on the VCS. I can overlook feeble graphics when the concession is necessary to ensure better gameplay, but here, as stated, the gameplay is nowhere to be found. One would think that a hit arcade game, translated to the 2600 by a hit game maker known for its quality carts, would be a sure bet. Wrong! Is this cart an Activision game or a Froggo one?
Kung Fu Master, another long standing arcade favorite,
was also ported over to the 2600. When I heard the news that it
was destined to arrive on our fave platform of yore, I was pretty
excited. KFM on the 2600 intrigued me from the start, because
I could visualize the translation working out pretty accurately.
While not anywhere nearly as bad as DD (honestly, what could be?)
KFM is still beleaguered with problems. It looks all right, down
to the score bar and the colors of the lairs, and even the sounds
and music are decent. My main complaint, as was the case with
DD, is the horrible control.
Both DD and KFM were incredibly popular arcade games, and their
influence is still felt to this day. On the 2600 though, both
are unequaled disasters that reek of shoddy effort and zero research.
Of the two, only KFM is even slightly tolerable, and its novelty
quickly wanes after a few attempts at playing it. As much as I'd
like to recommend both, I cannot-they are things of unspeakable
evil. Half finished games like Sinistar and Xevious
(both by Atari) are more enjoyable than either of these two travesties.
If you seriously want to play DD or KFM at home, go with the NES
KFM, and play DD on the Sega Genesis. Anything else is just furthering
the process of death by causing high blood pressure or simple
brain atrophy. Have a nice day.
Get your own Free Home Page