Amidar

"A Better Version of Pac-Man"

Amidar was released in 1982 as a joint venture between Parker Brothers and Konami (yes, that Konami....of Castlevania fame) It never really achieved a large amount of press and popularity, yet somehow my parents bought it before I was born, because I grew up playing this game when I started playing video games.

In the game of Amidar, you control various contraptions, at first something vaguely resembling a smiling face (or perhaps a Pac-Man...), in the second stage you control what to me seems like a representation (not a very good one) of a bulldozer. Your mission is to control your character and move it over each part of the stage so that you could form shaded in boxes over the entire stage signifying that it is won. But of course it would be pretty simple if that was the whole premise of the game, there are enemies that look like a smaller yellow version of the goomba's from the original Super Mario Brothers video game that try to prevent you from filling in the entire screen. (In the second stage they turn into pigs) Luckily you can avoid them by pressing one of the buttons on your joystick which turns your enemies into a traveling black version of themselves which cannot harm you. Now,how does Amidar stack up against Atari 2600 games in general.

Graphics - 5 - I have no idea what I am supposed to be, and don't really have a clue as to what my enemies in the second stage are either. The pigs aren't well detailed, but it is just the 2600 and it's crisp nonetheless. The boxes when shaded in are quite colorful. The graphics are pretty average, and you really don't need to know who you are to play this game.

Sound - 5 - Your basic Atari blips. At least they are appropriate, especially when your character dies.

Control - 9 - A tiny bit of irresponsiveness that's just because of Atari's controllers. You can control your character very easily.

Challenge - I find this game pretty difficult. The artificial intelligence isn't the best...when your enemies can have you they sometimes go the other way, nonetheless you only have a few lives. For fun try to beat my high score, 2549 on stage 2.

Fun - 6 - This game resembles Pac-Man. While the object of the game isn't eating dots, it's filling in boxes for the entire stage, the fact that you have enemies chasing you over a screen, and after you complete a stage it goes basically to the same stage with only minor changes should make this game something to look into for Pac-Man fans. Personally, I think this game is better than the 2600 port of Pac-Man (however the arcade version surpasses Amidar easily) It's fun for a while but it doesn't have much replay value which is it's downside.

Should you buy it? If you're a serious Atari collector, absolutely. If you can't get enough of Pac-Man, yes. If you're looking for a game with extensive replay value like Video Pinball or Pitfall, stay away. However if you find this used in a local used video game store for a good price, I'd recommend every Atari collector, casual or not, to buy this game. It's not great, but it's a solid game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/02, Updated 02/18/02