Captain Beeble Reviewed by Krazyfool

 
Platform: Atari 400 16k cartridge

Publisher: Inhome

Developer: Inhome

Genre: 2-d shoot 'em up

Origin: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

This game is forgotten by many, which is rather easy because this game had VERY limited release.

I am one of the few lucky people on this globe to actually own this one "through an incredible twist of fate, The local video store that rented it went under and I was at their big closeout sale with forty bucks and a mission".

Had this game had the same chance at stardom as Pac-Man or Space Invaders, it could have easily become one of the greats.

Many games share traits of this game and yet it is a patchwork hybrid of the best elements of many games. It doesn't look or play like any one game you can put your finger on and say "yep, it's a rip off of ___", thus, it is the most unique game I have ever played. I half wish it were a rip off of something else so I could track down the original and play it on a modern console or on an emulator.

But alas, my Atari 400 is caput and Beeble has vanished into the mists of legend.

It's a side scrolling shoot 'em up where you fly via rocket pack through increasingly labyrinthine caves. Your goal is to get to one end of the cave to retrieve an unstable crystal and bring it back to the crystal processing unit before it blows up on you.

The obstacles to this goal are these little buggy things that look like Space Invaders yet, don't.
Not only do you have to shoot the bugs but you have to avoid traps such as boulders rolling down hallways, and chain-like snakelike things that move in and undulating wave sequence.

You die just by one touch of anything white "the bugs, the rocks, etc". To top that all off, in the higher levels the walls turn white so you can't touch anything.
You have to carefully pulse the jetpack to levitate above the floor. You can gain velocity by holding the controller. This is not advised in later levels where the walls can kill you.
Some levels though are lethal to the touch AND require you to do some REAL tight ace piloting to pull through in time. Did I mention you can explode by running out of time?

A game that throws out the rules and separates the weak from the strong.

Graphics: 10 A relative term when you discuss a 4 color 8-bit game but, when you consider the other games that were around at the time, this thing was the freaking (insert game with good graphics here) of it's day!

Writing: 10 The old 8-bits didn't have much in the way of cinema scenes Especially pre-NES even then, all the back story for SMB was in the pamphlet, but, Beeble did have a back story in it's pamphlet. I have since misplaced (thrown away during an uncharacteristic cleaning spell) said pamphlet.

 Sound: 10 Well, this is also hard to rate being an old Atari geezer of a game. But like the "wakka wakka", in Pac-Man or the "phweeng ching! phweeng ching!", of space Invaders it suits it's purposes.

 Music: 0 Unless you count the hypnotic pulsing "bum bum bum bum bum", as music.
Put some headphones with tunes on (I recommend the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange but hey that's me).

 Controls: 10 Depending on your speed buildup you sometimes had to wrestle the controller to pull out of a crash. A feature I actually liked, it adds to the tension. As for physical controls just your standard Atari joysticks (for the inferior peons maybe! I had the Spectravideo chopper joystick control with the button on the stick! My parents LOVED me, those other kids were neglected or something).

 Gameplay: 10 Excellent! Those kids at Nintendo could learn something. Not for the squeamish, this thing makes you more tense than The Shining. If you keep losing on one level could cause you to hurl the controller (my uncle actually did this).
Again, the most unique game I've ever played.

Replayability: 10 Addictive as crack once you get the hang of it. Trust me, it's challenging enough for ya lads, I had people who whupped the best NES games of the time and it kicked their asses.
Alas, the TV connector is worn through and I actually can't replay it. 

Final score: Oh what the hell, it's MY review. I gave it a zero for music but overall it's a 10

Overall Rating:

110% (Hey,It's possible in P.E.).