Kwazy Kwaks

The Good
Carnival is a great game from SEGA where the object is to shoot as many objects as you can while trying to build up your ammo (and stopping ducks from taking it). Official ports were released for three consoles – Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and Intellivision - but home computer users had to miss out. And so, so it was up to small companies like Mr. Chip to fill that void, and one such example is Krazy Kwaks for the VIC-20.

The game was released on cassette and consists of two parts. The first part contains a lot of detailed information, telling you the premise of the game and the controls you can use, while the second is the game itself. There is quite a long load in between, so I suggest that you have a drink then come back.

The game mechanics are the same, with rows of objects going across the screen in opposite directions and a bullet counter at the bottom below your gun. A condensed version of “Sobre las Olas” is still there, serving as the background music. The music can be turned off and you can listen to the sound effects only.

What sets this clone apart from the original is the addition of levels; if the objects that scroll by is no more than five, the screen will turn red and you need to shoot the remaining objects before they disappear forever. Of course, with many other games released at the time, the more levels you progress through, the more difficult the game becomes; and in the case of Krazy Kwaks, the objects scroll by at a faster rate and the music speeds up.

If I was looking at the front cover inside a computer store back in the day, I would immediately have known that the game would be a shooter of some sort. The illustration on the front shows a toy duck within a crosshair, as well as some loading instructions on the opposite side, as well as copyright information below that.

People may use this game to “score attack”, recording their high scores on paper since there is no such thing as a high score chart in the game. I can’t stand more than three games is one go, so I’ll probably do the challenge on multiple days. Krazy Kwaks is ideal for a game once you get home from school or work.

The Bad
The screen turning red is a bit hard on my eyes and you can’t see the ducks eating your bullets. Also, the key to turn off the music is [Shift Lock], which may be difficult to press if you choose to play the game with the keyboard.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Krazy Kwaks is an excellent clone of Carnival. All the game mechanics are there, but now you have to deal with level numbers. It is not as good as Rabbit's take of the game, but it is too bad that both titles never made it past the VIC-20.