Q*bert

Q*Bert on the ColecoVision is probably my favorite version aside from the NES. The game is as close to arcade quality as it gets on the console.

This edition is impressive, with all the elements of the arcade game including those squiggly green things that move across the pyramid sideways. There are even short "intros" to each level. I'm glad to see that the "escape disks" sport that cool swirl pattern, but I must say I'm disappointed Q*bert doesn't have any eyes. He's just not the same loveable freak without those big, white eyes. Also, when he "curses", it doesn't look like he really means it. I had difficulty with with the control, until I realized you need to turn the controller forty-five degrees and play it like that. It feels strange at first, but it's not bad once you get the hang of it. The characters are animated smoothly, and the sound effects are faithful to the arcade. Q*bert has three skill levels, and provides plenty of old-school fun.

My biggest beef is that Ugg (one of the nasties you have to avoid) often appears without warning on the bottom edge of the screen, resulting in some undeserved deaths. Otherwise I'm pleased with this fine translation.

The audio effects are faithful to the arcade, but the graphics are lacking. Q*bert is pixelated and has holes for eyes, making him look like a zombie! The "shaded" sides of the cubes are ugly pixilated patterns instead of solid colors - what's up with that? When Q*bert escapes from Coily via a flying disc, the animation is jerky, and worse yet there's an unnecessary pause before you resume play at the top of the pyramid. Clearly Parker Bros. didn't put a whole lot of effort into this project. Q*bert's timeless gameplay is hard to resist, but this home translation is a little weak.

This 5200 game is one of the best-looking versions of Q*bert I've seen. The screen looks almost arcade-perfect, and there seem to be a lot more baddies than usual bouncing around the pyramid. But, leave it to the Atari 5200 controller to throw a monkey wrench into the fun! Because its non-centering joystick could be troublesome in a game like this, you have to move the joystick AND push a button (in concert) to jump! That means you'll be holding down the fire button for most of the game -- which is not comfortable. Even with this fail-safe mechanism I still found myself heading in the wrong direction, especially when trying to escape from Coily the snake. Still, I think Parker Bros did the best they could with this. There are three skills levels.

Finally, you'll sometimes struggle to determine where you're supposed to press the disk to make diagonal jumps. But overall this delivers some solid arcade fun.

One aspect that nearly spoils this Q*bert is the poor animation of the enemies, or should I say, lack of animation! Instead of jumping between squares, they simply disappear and then reappear on the next square. Not only does this make it harder to anticipate their movements, but it just doesn't look good. Other than that, the game is fine and features two levels of difficulty.

Wer den Hüpfer schon vor gut zehn Jahren mochte, wird sich auch an seinem neuen Auftritt erfreuen. Allerdings dürften selbst "normale" Game-Boy-Besitzer an dem einfachen Geschicklichkeitsspiel ihre Freude haben. Gerade für zwischendurch bietet sich Q*Bert an.

Det är väl med "Q-bert" och pyramiden som med den välsignade kuben vi våndades med för en tid sedan. Antingen älskar man det eller också tycker man bara att spelet blir enformigt i längden. Men visst är det på samma gång fiffigt, vilket förklarar min relativt höga stjärnbedömning totalt sett.

This could have been the ultimate Q*bert, but it has a fatal flaw. Like most classic arcade games, the goal of Q*bert is to play for high score. However, when your game ends, you're immediately presented a black game screen with two prompts: end or continue. The problem is, your score is never displayed anywhere! Considering how great the game is otherwise, this massive oversight is a real shame. Other minor issues includes muffled audio and the fact that you get five lives instead of three (three lives should always be standard).

På Game Boy faller allt platt till marken på grund av ett alldeles osedvanligt uselt användarinterface. Bert är helt enkelt gresasvår att styra runt. Dessutom ser man inte hela pyramiden vilket gör det hopplöst att planera framfärden. Glöm!