Texas Chainsaw Massacre

""Look what your brother did to the door!""

In Wizard Video's short lifetime, they made two games for the Atari 2600 both of which are extremely hard to find. They made Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The main reason why these two games are so hard to find is because, despite the primitive graphics, parents were still upset about it. Mostly because you play as the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface whilst hacking up helpless victims. This game and Halloween were both kept behind store counters and not many people even knew about them because of it. Oh, well.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is truly a horror classic, but can you say the same about the Atari 2600 video game? No, not really. It's still not a bad game though.

You play as Leatherface while chasing helpless female victims through the backwoods of Texas. You must avoid obstacles and kill as many victims as you can before you die for the last time. You have a limited amount of chainsaw fuel and no way of getting any more. Even while you aren't hacking up a victim the chainsaw is still idling so you are slowly losing fuel while searching for victims. The obstacles really don't make it any easier to catch the victims either. If any part of Leatherface comes in contact with an object he will get stuck. You have to cut through the object with your chainsaw and waste more valuable fuel. It's really a drag, especially when your score exceeds ten thousand. Then the obstacles begin moving faster and it's harder to avoid them. The obstacles are cow skulls, bramble, wheelchairs (hehe), and fences.

The system of this game isn't all that great. You only get two lives, a limited amount of chainsaw fuel, and no way of gaining any more of either one. You automatically die when you run out of fuel, too. I think that just makes you a little bit more motivated to kill as many victims as possible.

The sound effects aren't too bad considering this is the Atari 2600. A high-pitched whistle is the sound of a victim screaming and there is a neat little revving sound when you power up the chainsaw. There's no music, but that's okay.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the Atari 2600 isn't all that bad of a game. If you want to play it I suggest that you download the ROM somewhere. An actual cart of this game would be very pricey anywhere you could find it. I have seen two copies on Ebay before. By the time I saw them the current bid for each was over one hundred and fifty dollars with about five bids and the starting bid at about five dollars. I will suggest this game to any Atari fan or just a fan of the movie.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/01, Updated 12/21/01