"It's a bird...it's a plane! It's...actually a bird with a dude on the back."

Joust is an old game that I’ve played for a long time and never really got the gist of it besides knowing that running into an enemy and knocking them off was a good thing. One of the best loved games from Atari, Joust is best played in the mind-set that this was the cutting edge game of the eighties and everything in it is meant to be challenging. If you can do that, and get into the game, you’ll find that there is more strategy needed than simple button pounding!

The Game Play

Taking control of a knight, you and your bird must knock off several other computer-controlled enemies and make as many points as you possibly can before you are knocked off yourself. Yes, I did say a bird, in which you have to take a giant ostrich and joust to your hearts content. While you may think of jousting as being something that is done on a grassy, medieval field, you’ll find that you are taken through several stages of platform jumping and knight busting action!

The game difficulty is restricted to how fast you are with your reflexes and just how many enemy knights you can kill off. Also, you’ll find that Joust is game that requires a little bit of strategy and luck with some skill thrown in for good measure, especially at the later stages. The game play is complex enough to confuse first time players, but once you have the workings of the game and just what you have to do down to a science, you’ll find that playing is easy, even at higher levels.

Basically, you take your character and go up against computer controlled jousting opponent on stages that are multi tiered with more challenging opponents! The game takes a slight twist in which you careen into your opponent or you jump on them in order to knock them down and turn them into an egg of sorts that you have to collect for more points. Again, this is a confusing thing to run across, especially when you’re not aware of what it is that you’re doing through most of the game, cheering when you win and looking perplexed when you lose.

There are no character selections, in which you get a single character and you go up against other character that look the same type. When you get into the later stages, the enemies come at you faster and with more aggression than they did the stage before, so if you’re looking for something with some depth, you won’t really find it here!

Controlling your character is something that takes a little practice and plenty of luck to do if you’re just starting out in the game. You have to learn how to time your jumps and be able to stop your ostrich on a dime with certain stages, so be prepared for plenty of testing and practice before you take on more difficult stages! The ostrich itself has nothing advanced about it other than the jumping, and that is easily done with a simple press of the button, so no worries here.

The Visuals

Visually, the game is as simple as it gets, with little or no detail to any of the stages or the characters that are involved in the game. You’ll also find that with the lack of visual effects that a platform game is supposed to have, you really have to be into simple games or a complete Atari lover to really get into the visuals that are found here! The characters are only separated by different colors, which are muted to a dull color and without much detail to be found, it is rather disappointing for most modern gamers.

The Audio

The audio in Joust is limited to a point that I really couldn’t hear if there was any sort of audio track. If there was, then I must be deaf, because I sure as hell didn’t hear anything! The sound effects of the game are what takes precedence in the overall sound, and with plenty of jumping and bleeps, you’ll find that it is a game that can be muted without much thought. Popping in anything to get away from the constant bleeping sound of your character jumping around the screen is what will keep you in the game.

The Verdict

Joust is for old time gamers who love old Atari games. You can usually find this machine in a pizza parlor or a bowling alley, with the machine in half working order. Although it’s an old game and it’s relatively obsolete, there is something here for more advance gamers that remember starting out on this machine. However, with the lack of visuals and audio as well as simple game play, most modern gamers will probably find this game a little too drab to be anything worth playing!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/02, Updated 05/21/02