Atari 2600
1983
Huh. This is the third platformer I’ve played in a row, which wouldn’t be weird if I were playing NES games, but these are Atari games, and Atari is not really suited toward platforming. It is suited for Space Invaders and I guess Frogger. Platforming is for more mature systems, systems able to handle both hopping AND bopping. The Atari should stick to shooting things in space, with the occasional foray into frog sex.
But for all that, some times you gotta say “screw all that noise, I’m going to make a goddamn platformer.” It is the rebels with that sort of dangerous attitude that change the world. One of those rebels gave us Keystone Kapers.
In Keystone Kapers, you play a cop chasing a robber through a multi-story department store. The cop is much faster than the robber, but between he and his prey is an increasing number of unlikely obstacles, including, but not limited to, shopping carts and remote control airplanes. You have to catch up with the robber before he gets to the roof and escapes somehow. Maybe he’s got a buddy with a helicopter waiting for him?
This chasing scenario is freaking great and leaves me wondering why it hasn’t been used in tons and tons of platformers. The game has a nice progression of difficulty starting out stupidly easy, steadily progressing into the realm of stupidly hard.
My only complaint with the game is that it toys with providing alternate routes, with the inclusion of escalators and elevators, but no matter how many times you begin the hunt anew, the store layout never changes, and there is only one “correct” path. That’s a small quibble in an otherwise fantastic game.
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