Cannonball Blitz

The Good
I still remember the day I played Cannonball Blitz - I just got back from an Apple User's Group meeting with my friend and we had some new games to play (those meetings sometimes turned into a pirate-fest). The two best games were Marauder and Cannonball Blitz. I was already familiar with Olaf Lubeck's work having played Jawbreaker already and as soon as I saw the Donkey Kong layout I was hooked.

The game reproduced the three screens in Donkey Kong (who could ask for more? It was a clone!) and did it very well although with a Revolutionary War theme to it. The sounds were charming and the animation was decent. I played this game quite a bit.

The Bad
The only problems with the game were its keyboard control, but that was typical of the Apple II. If you were used to controlling games with the keyboard on the Apple, this game wasn't any worse than the rest.

The Bottom Line
This is the closest Donkey Kong clone (other than Atarisoft's) you'll ever see on the Apple II. It won't ever happen again.......uh, because no one makes Apple II games anymore. :)

The Good
Familiar gameplay The innovation of the balloon, which you can "catch" and ride up to higher platforms.

The Bad
There's a lot of waiting around. There are no ladders you can use to ascend. Instead, you have to position your character at one end of a see-saw, then wait for a cannonball to drop onto it, which launches you to the next higher platform.

What music is present is of limited quality (single voice).

Your character is an all-white sprite with very slight animation.

The Bottom Line
Cannonball Blitz is a game that apes Donkey Kong (pardon the pun). You direct your character across the screen, using sea-saws and cannonballs to reach higher platforms. You can jump over cannonballs, but if they hit you, you lose a life. Your goal is to capture the flag at the top of the screen.

The Good
Back in the early Eighties, Sierra (known as On-Line Systems when it just started out) created many arcade games that were based on original coin-ops, and after creating Crossfire and Jawbreaker, which were clones of Targ and Pac-Man respectively, they created their own version of Donkey Kong. Like Nintendo's game, CannonBall Blitz involves the player climbing a series of platforms in order to reach their target at the top of the screen. Although the layout of the two games is essentially the same, a few objects were changed to reflect its war theme. Barrels are replaced with cannonballs, and DK himself with a soldier that closely resembles a Nutcracker.

After the game loads, you get to see a nice animation of a soldier shooting a cannonball at the castle (just above the title), and the castle is destroyed to reveal the author. There is also a nice animation after you complete the game's three levels. I don't know whether this animation varies, since I haven't yet completed all three levels more than once.

The game then tells you whether you want to play with either joystick or keyboard. Anyone who is already familiar with Sierra's default keyboard controls will have no problems adjusting. Otherwise, CannonBall Blitz is much easier with joystick, and anyone can figure out what to do. Timing is crucial when it comes to jumping over cannonballs, and if you jump too soon, you will lose one of your lives. Pushing up on the joystick makes the character use ladders. As with most games of its era, CannonBall Blitz gets challenging every time you manage to complete the three levels. Part of the fun is to keep trying to beat your high score.

When it comes to graphics, the only objects worth mentioning are the larger ones. Both the soldier and the cannon on level three is drawn nicely. Nice animations are present of them launching cannonballs. There is a nice little tune just before you make a start on level one. I sometimes question why you don't hear it during the game as well, but since no other game has this, I choose to accept it.

The Bad
Out of all Sierra's games, CannonBall Blitz is the most difficult, and much of the difficulty involves the levels. On the first level, for instance, instead of ladders you have to deal with seesaws and you must rely on them to hoist you up to the next platform. It can take a while for them to roll toward the seesaw you're standing near, and even if they do come earlier, they will fall on the top of your head (through the hatch above you). And on level three, I found it hard to pinpoint where you will be safe from cannonballs falling on your head as you reach the upper platform.

The Bottom Line
Despite its difficulty, CannonBall Blitz is a nice little DK clone, but since it follows a war theme, the barrels and the gorilla is replaced by cannonballs and soldiers. There are nice animations and sound, and the game is easy to control, especially with the joystick. Anyone who has fun playing Sierra's earliest arcade games should take a look at this game.