River Raid

The Good
EVERYTHING.

To me, the thing that really did it for me with River Raid was the amazing control. The game actually responded in the 2600 version at home the way that other shooters --like Defender -- responded in the arcade. This made the game a huge hit with just about everyone I know.

The graphics were good for the 2600, the refueler twist on the standard shooter, and the awesome hit detection are just a few of the things I'd mention if I were going to list everything good, but what's the point? Everything about the game was so tight, so perfect, that going on and on about what I like would be useless.

Everyone will enjoy playing this game.

The Bad
I liked everything.

The Bottom Line
If you haven't played this game, you should find a way to play it. It's easy to pick up and play for gamers of all skill levels. It is one of the best games ever on the 2600, and it deserves to be played by everyone. You will love it.

The Good
River Raid is, if you aren't acquainted to it, one of the most famous and highest recommended games for the Atari 2600. However, my review is about the Atari 8-bit version, so I invite you to read my impressions on how it stands. The game itself is very simple. From a top-view perspective, you are in control of a plane and fly through a river with enemies on it. You have unlimited ammo, and a fuel gauge. Your goal is to move forward, destroy enemies, and keeping yourself with enough fuel to stay on air. Despite as plain it may sound next to current generation video games (2015), this is the very beauty of River Raid. I would like to call it more a survival game, rather than a shoot them up. Here are no power ups; your weapon serves its purpose well. You also don't have to destroy every enemy on sight, in fact on even stages - where the river splits in two sides - you can't; nor you have to complete every stage in certain amount of time. You don't even have to defeat a mighty, formidable boss to advance to the next level, as a matter of fact with just destroying bridges - even from far away - you'll do so. However, your fuel will unavoidably deplete, and just because you can fill it up by flying through air carriers, sometimes it won't be possible. The enemies will eventually make you notice seriously that you are outnumbered, and then, you will lose. The early stages are very easy, and will allow a fair learning curve, so most players won't feel frustrated about River Raid. However, it's more likely that many will come back to do better than before.

The Bad
The graphics are very simple and to some, it may reflect how good or bad this game has aged. The colors are bright and aren't what most people would consider the standard for a war game - darker, in my opinion-. However, one has to be aware of the time it was created, and personally I have a very hard time trying to find anything bad on it. Nevertheless, being this a version ported to a more powerful machine as the original, one could expect it had an upgrade - but fortunately, besides a few cosmetic changes, it doesn't.

The Bottom Line
River Raid is, to modern shooter games, like an early chariot wheel next to a current Formula 1 wheel. It can't have the same performance, but it's full of class. I recommend this game to anyone with an Atari 8 bit computer, and it's not even hard to get. If you are in doubt, give at least a try, there are many places online to test drive it.

The Good
Everyone who was at least a bit in touch with gaming in 80's must know this game. Simple basic mechanics resulting in lot of fun and challenge. Regarding PC version, it's 16-color, there's PCjr/Tandy 3-way sound support and of course controller support, so everything you need for good arcading on almost Atari/Commodore level of quality.

The Bad
I'm not sure if it was only emulator issue (in both DOSBox and DOSBox-x) or it was also in original game, but game didn't have stable framerate. There were some slowdowns, then returned back to normal. It was always no matter what I tried, fast emulation, slow emulation, CPU type, cycles, etc.. This can affect playability a bit, especially in later harder levels.

The Bottom Line
I still think that 8-bit versions (with more fixed HW which was also more suited for arcades) were a little better, but this PC version is really close! Solid 4*!

The Good
So simple and so much fun, I like the urgency element of the game. One moment you could be dodging helicopters and ships then you are low on fuel. Competing with other people for the best score was also fun.

The Bad
The game seems like it has no ending.

The Bottom Line
River Raid is a game where you have to shoot your way through various moving objects while staying within the river. Fuel is also a thing to keep an eye on.