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System:
Arcade
Genre:
Action
Publisher:
Bally/Midway
Developer:
Data East
Players:
1-2 (1 simultaneously)
Release date/year:
1982
Other systems:
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- BurgerTime
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1982 Data East - Bally/Midway - Arcade
- Burgertime holds a special place in my heart for being a game that was so stupidly simple that it ended up being fun and addicting all at the same time. With nothing to worry about other than completing the burgers and avoiding the apparently homicidal food stuffs, you have to simply survive and make the food. From there, you move from stage to stage and the enemies simply get tougher with each passing stage until they just outsmart you!
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The Game Play
The game play works the same way as Donkey Kong does, in which you control a small chef that must run around the different stages, climbing ladders to get to the different condiments that belong on a huge ass burger. Through this, you’ll encounter several different walking food objects that are there to stop you in your progress, and while you are almost powerless to stop them, you can collect pepper shakers and spray them down to halt their progress while you run in the opposite direction! Really, when you boil the game down to what it is supposed to represent, you are playing a weird game of cat and mouse that revolves around food and displacing burger condiments for points.
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The Control
Gamers of any age and of any skill level can pick this game up and start playing without having to really learn anything other than making the burgers on any given stage. With that in mind, once you’ve completed the different burger sets, you can continue onto the next stage in which the enemies get a little tougher and the stage layout is a little trickier! The burgers themselves really aren’t all that hard to complete, with your only action being running over them. However, to get the job done quickly, it usually is best to start at the top and cascade all of the parts down, squashing the walking food in the process for extra points.
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The Visuals
Visually, Burgertime is about as simple as it gets, with a little detail thrown in for extra appeal. The stage layouts of the burgers are a little different each time, but don’t expect to see anything that is considered, by modern standards, special effects! Burgertime does a rather impressive job just keeping the theme and the overall simple feel with the game, in which the animated food wanders around looking to make you lunch while you run over the different condiments. The burger pieces are also rather well done, with the lettuce seeming to have the leafy ridges and the buns having the little poppy seeds thrown on for added measure.
The backgrounds of the stage never change, and much like Donkey Kong, you’ll be looking at a mostly black background as your guide. Probably some of the best animation that you’ll see {other than the walking food} is when you pepper the food itself, and it starts to convulse with a sneezing fit. It isn’t something that you would expect to find, but it does come up quite often and is rather funny to watch!
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The Audio
The sound in Burgertime is typical action music with nothing of flare thrown in. You won’t find excessive voices or musical scores like you would with today’s action games, but rather the simplistic MIDI music that the older arcade games are known for. While it doesn’t impress the ears, it does accompany the simple nature of the game and will keep your interest for more than twenty minutes! Even though the music is average, the sound effects aren’t much different, with your general display of bleeps and bloops to go along with you burger making adventure. All in all, this is a little more than what you would expect with an old arcade game, but it will bring back memories to those who played the arcade game based simply on the way that the original version was arranged!
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The Verdict
Overall, Burgertime is a classic game from a classic age. With the amount of fun that is found within making burgers and avoiding walking food, you’ll find that a couple of hours of your video gaming time could be spent in playing this title! The visuals are old as are the audio tracks, but the fact that it has been produced with virtually no problems really goes a long way when considering other arcade games that I’ve played. Older gamers will find this game to be something they can sink their teeth into and gather a little bit of memory from the past, while old school Donkey Kong players will find it to be a pleasant diversion from the barrel jumping fat plumber!
8/10
//KasketDarfyre
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