"Activision does NOT deliver"

Activision has made many good games for the Atari 2600; however, Keystone Kapers is not one of their more masterful designs. The game play is mind-numbingly repetitive and not very challenging.

In Keystone Kapers you play as a police officer running through what I assume is a store of some type trying to catch a burglar trying to escape. You start off on the bottom floor of the store and the burglar starts on the floor right above you. You must go all the way to the left side of the screen to catch an escalator to the second floor, then all the way to the right to get to the third floor, and so on until either you catch the caper, or you run out of time and he escapes. To hinder you in catching your criminal, there are various obstacles. Some flying red things that you can easily jump over or duck under, some shopping carts that you can jump over, and airplanes flying around that you must duck under. At the top of the screen there is your score and a timer. As the caper runs towards the exit, the timer will go down and also if you run into any obstacles the timer will go down. Once the timer is to zero, the villain has escaped and you lose a life. If you catch the caper on the other hand, you will receive a point bonus depending on your score. You also receive points for picking up various items like suitcases that are sitting on the ground. After three lives, it's game over. At the bottom of the screen, there is a map that shows where the escalators are and where you are in relation to the criminal.

Graphics
The graphics were pretty good. I liked the coloring and the animations to show running and I thought the graphics were pretty sophisticated for an Atari 2600 game. Movements weren't extremely fluent, but they were still pretty good. I also liked the fact that the map was on the bottom, which is a nice touch, and did a good job displaying what it was supposed to.

Sound
There wasn't much in the sound department. There were a total of no more than five sound effects and absolutely no music, which I felt could have been added to this game without going over the top. What sounds there were in this game were well placed and not annoying though.

Challenge
Unlike most Atari games, this game isn't really that challenging, even as the game goes on. Your character runs multiple times faster than the caper you are chasing and always does throughout the game. The only thing that changes as the levels go on is the speed and amount of obstacles you have to dodge, which never really gets all that difficult. For example, the red things you have to dodge are incredibly easy to jump over and time exactly right each time. Same with the shopping carts and aero planes. Though their speed increases, they never really get harder to dodge, making this game very repetitive and boring to play.

Replay Value
To write this review was the first time I've played this game in years. This game just doesn't stand the test of time as other Atari games do. The level of difficulty just isn't there in this game and the game play is just incredibly boring, repetitive, and even a tad bit depressive. This game has hardly any replay value at all, and there are possibly hundreds of better Atari 2600 games out there.

Final Words
If you are in search of good games, this one should not be on your shopping list. Activision usually delivers when it comes to Atari 2600 games, but for some reason they just slipped up on this one.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/26/06