Look: 9/10 Yayy, finally another arcade game. They're always of higher quality in this era, of course because they can contain so much more. And indeed, the sprites here feel very advanced for the era, while harkening the upcoming console era of platformers. A great look. Like what elaborate and large sprites for its time, yet still functional. Plus I love the goofy character's outfit lol

These graphics are the type I want to use for my It's Always Sunny-themed sewer crawling roguelite Metroidvania-style platformer (uh, yeah, it's a long story lol). I almost want to start on making the pixel art now, inspired by this game (such incredible sprites for what I assume is 8-bit? graphics are the part of game creation I understand the least... if anyone is good at pixel, vector, or other 2d art, hit me up...) because I already have the programming and mechanics down. Just would need the graphics before can meaningfully start on collision masks, tweaking mechanics, and finally level design <3 Once I truly start on that game creation project, it will definitely detract from this chronology project--but I have a lifetime to go through it.

Sound: 8/10 Great music! Finally jingles that aren't just jingles. Catchy, goofy, but also fitting. I'm so excited for the upcoming mid-80s console era!!!! Wild music overall, increasing in pace sometimes etc., it's just so exciting to experience "real" background music! I mean, not that is amazing but it's nice to hear a catchy background song that isn't drowned out by irritating sound effects. Great hi score jingle, too. Oh and great ending jingle that they dance too :-p

Play: 8/10 Tho it is very rudimentary, this is the first platformer that felt like an actual predecessor to the console era Marios etc. The obstacles, the jump mechanic (to some extent), and the level design/flip screen felt less like an arcade game and more like the upcoming console era (and thank goodness it didn't feel like the contemporaneous console and microcomputer platformers, which pale to this). If only the jump mechanic was a bit more advanced, because if so, this could have been right up there with the MSX Goonies etc! And if it had the shoot feature too... it would have joined the ranks of the pre-Metroidvanias! (well without the item aspect too lol but you know what I mean, a well-made advanced shooting platformer. Still so impressed the Konami Goonies games had a boomerang weapon, so prescient). It's pretty nice when, in this era, the biggest complaint about the gameplay is not the platform collision masks and mechanics etc., but instead the clunkiness of the collecting the essentially meaningless Score objects (I know arcade is all about hi scores, but for me, it's about completing all available screens at least once!). If I'm being honest, quite a few of the platform collision masks and jump parts are clunky, but still, for its era, this is everything I wanted from a platformer and is setting the stage for the "true games" (heh) I am approaching soon. Plus, I just couldn't stop playing it till I felt I was complete! (which felt very long). And at last, what I believe is the final screen cuz I see the cage!

Technically repetitive with the same screen designs repeating, but it was nice to see the progress bar at the bottom making it clear I was working to a goal. And when I saw that cage, and on my first try on the screen somehow timed it exactly right to capture the dragon dinosaur thing (wish I could have screenshotted that)... felt great! Felt like the console games I grew up on! Yay! Plus, a great goofy ending animation of dancing:

Feel: 9/10 I know my husband would love the little buns in the graphic/sprite when you jump without a direction, basically just turning back (I assume it will play a role later in the game, excited for a game that finally feels long without repetitiveness, also harkening to the upcoming console games that will finally take me multiple nights regularly... scared for my almost 5k backlog, but also excited for how much gaming and fun-ness that means I have coming!).

Ahhhh I just love this: there's actually an "end" (tho of course it has the re-cycle feature for replayability, but there is indeed a set goal of getting to the end of the cave and capturing the dinosaur, rather than literally just recycling the same screens immediately). This gets me sooooo excited I just can't explain it. Also, lol, when you have to start to slow down to avoid obstacles and the Dragon Dinosaur thing starts to catch up on you real slowly giving stalker movie / survival horror games vibes heh

Attachment: 9/10 If it weren't for the sloppy collision masks of the collectibles, this game would be the most absolutely incredible game I've played yet since the PLATO games back in the mid to late 70s! The most frustrating screen to involve the poorly done collision masks for the collectibles, for me, was this one:

It was hard to discern whether this came out before or after Congo Bongo (released in February of '83) and if there's any relation (both being platformers, tho Congo Bongo is isometric). Either way, partly thanks to the capabilities of arcade machines at the time, but also partly due to modern/advanced/prescient game design, this is the best platformer I've played so far. And quite possibly the most critical games I've played since the PLATO RPGs in the 70s, especially considering Ultima and other RPGs have not really been my thing so far--but I know late 80s and 90s platformers are something I will enjoy! I'm almost overwhelmed because I keep finding more and more DOS publishers with a huge library of 90s platformers. Most see them as half-assed, shoved-out games, but all the ones I peeked at and playtested were my type of game! Nervous to add to my Backlog, but it is what it is! Anyway, I beat it at last, with what felt like a solid score, and with the feeling that I had the jump mechanic down quite well. I knew when to time it to avoid 2 birds flying from different directions at the same time, etc. Only clunky part that never quite was perfect was collecting those items, but its clunkiness almost felt like part of the game at a certain point. The fact I didn't play it more after finishing all screens and capturing the dragon dinosaur thing, etc., does say something, but I don't think that's valid. The "main story" was more than long enough, and the "re-cycling" concept of the game is just a testament to its release year when beating the game wasn't enough at a public arcade where others could see your score--you had to go for the highest score!! I do know I will replay it, as the normal game not for highest score since I'd just be competing against myself and this game really feels more like a console platformer than an arcade high score competition game, and I do know I will be showing my brothers and having them play around with it. To add to all my praise, it's pick up and playable, so it could even just be left on at a get-together for people to play around with! All-around amazing game. I've been worried I'm adding too many games to my Favorite Favorites, but this needs to qualify: for its importance, prescience, and how into-it I got.

Completion: Captured the Dinosaur, ending with 153,760 Score, but not starting from the beginning screen again Playtime: ~55 mins