Congo Bongo (ARC, 1983)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-6.5 Control-6 Challenge-8.5? Story-4?
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6 Originality-6
Overall Score-6
+ Nice art direction and use of colour, good variation between levels (but not between loops), isometric platforming, some good enemy AI (the rhinos), expressive sprites, donkey kong and frogger inspired gameplay,
+/- Bounce off of walls when jumping into them, die in one hit, can't run or strafe, can't move or jump in the cardinal directions, no mid-air jump control, context sensitive climbing (having you press a button might've been better since it can occasionally activate when you don't want it to),
- No in-game music, unforgiving hit detection, some annoying sfx (rhino), some control issues (sliding physics after the slope in the first level - keep sliding despite jumping in the opposite direction - need to slow down and then jump sideways (you're also not introduced to this until the second loop since a green monkey stops your slide in the first one, climbing too close to corners makes you get about halfway up then fall back down a bit over and over), it takes longer to crawl out of a hole to the side instead of forward, ), trial & error (mechanics), no power ups? (not even any visible point items though you do get points from going into the holes in the third level), gets repetitive after the first loop,
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6 Originality-6
Overall Score-6
+ Nice art direction and use of colour, good variation between levels (but not between loops), isometric platforming, some good enemy AI (the rhinos), expressive sprites, donkey kong and frogger inspired gameplay,
+/- Bounce off of walls when jumping into them, die in one hit, can't run or strafe, can't move or jump in the cardinal directions, no mid-air jump control, context sensitive climbing (having you press a button might've been better since it can occasionally activate when you don't want it to),
- No in-game music, unforgiving hit detection, some annoying sfx (rhino), some control issues (sliding physics after the slope in the first level - keep sliding despite jumping in the opposite direction - need to slow down and then jump sideways (you're also not introduced to this until the second loop since a green monkey stops your slide in the first one, climbing too close to corners makes you get about halfway up then fall back down a bit over and over), it takes longer to crawl out of a hole to the side instead of forward, ), trial & error (mechanics), no power ups? (not even any visible point items though you do get points from going into the holes in the third level), gets repetitive after the first loop,
