Freeway

The Good
It's a funny game, and strangely addicting, especially since "Activision Anthology" compilations allow players to save their high scores. The mantra of "one more game" becomes all too commonplace here. The graphic are bright and colorful. You can tell what the sprites are, and there's a decent variety of cars and trucks to avoid. The sound effects are minimal, but the car engines and horns are pretty accurate in sound, given the limitations of the system. The chicken sounds and ruffled feather animations do provide amusement.

The Bad
Clearly a "Frogger" knock-off, but without the variety of gameplay. The chicken can go up or down. That's it. And unlike "Frogger", it's only a highway that the chicken interacts with. No real changes in the terrain the chicken must face. Then again, I suppose it would have been called "Freeway & More" had they done that. It lives up to it's namesake, and the challenge remains.

The Bottom Line
One of the earliest Atari 2600 games, and based off one of the oldest jokes ever, "Freeway" had players guide a chicken from one side of the road to the other. Given it's early status, it remains more of a fond nostalgia than anything else, but the gameplay still remains solid. I think gamers who weren't raised on the title may wonder what the big deal is now, but for its time, this was as addicting as "Kaboom!" or any of their other early titles, and a classic in its own right. A little dated, but still has its fun.