Hello, Gamebits readers! Guest columnist Hiphopguy23 here. Ever feel like dusting off that old Atari 2600 and getting some 2-bit action on? Well, Hiphopguy23 did just that this past Memorial Day weekend, and he is here to tell you which Atari games still hold up 25-30 years later and which should be shelved indefinitely.
5) River Raid — This game is as simple to learn as they come. Left and right move you side to side, forward will accelerate and back will brake. The button fires your gun. However, you can get caught playing this game for an hour. There seems to be an endless amount of screens to conquer and they all get progressively tougher, with narrower passageways to navigate and less and less fuel tanks available. River Raid is definitely a classic.
4) Centipede — Here is another "pick up and play" game. Fire at all the annoying bugs in your garden, including the rapidly descending centipede. The centipede and spider get faster and faster as the levels progress, making this game a challenge. Even more challenging is this game's successor, Millipede. In that game, you also have to deal with beetles, mosquitoes, ladybugs, and inchworms! Hiphopguy23 recommends Millipede if you have great hand-eye coordination and nerves of steel.
3) Mario Bros. — This is the best two-player game in Atari 2600 (with Warlords being the best four-player game). You can play Mario and Luigi cooperatively or competitively. Either way, you will have to deal with turtles, crabs, fireflies, and even ice creatures. In the competitive mode, a dirty trick is to wait under the POW switch until your opponent knocks a creature out, and then spring that creature back to life! Unfortunately, Hiphopguy23 has accidentally done that in cooperative mode as well.
2) Frogger — Yet another "jump right in" game. This game is brilliant in its simplicity…it doesn't even use the fire button! Simply navigate your frog past traffic, snakes, and logs to rest at your home lily pad. The traffic gets denser, the snakes get faster, and the logs you must jump on become shorter with each progressing screen. Like River Raid, there appear to be an endless amount of screens. You can easily find yourself playing for hours.
1) Adventure — Thirty years later, and this game is still brilliant! Hiphopguy23 recommends playing only Level 3, where all the items are randomly placed. Some random placements are impossible to beat, and you won't realize you are on one of them until you've been playing for 15 minutes. Hiphopguy23 also recommends playing with the Difficulty-A switches on, as they make the dragons faster and run from the sword. Hiphopguy23 still gets a nervous lump in his throat when the red dragon approaches!
Hiphopguy23 will be back next week with five games that didn't hold up so well. Until then, have a gamerrific weekend!
