Infiltrate

"Try to make "The Fry Guys" Angry"

The Apollo game ''Infiltrate'', created for use with the ATARI 2600, is both better and worse than it first looks. The game manual and cartridge art both show a futuristic city, and a space warrior complete with laser gun. And in the best tradition of early ATARI-style marketing, the back story speaks of corporate espionage, evil company agents, secret files, and the like. When you put the cartridge in, you get five colored stripes, and what look like the McDonald's Fry Guys running around. The graphics are a disappointment to say the least.
But, if you can stretch your imagination and convince yourself that the little stick man with what looks like a toilet plunger on his head (is it supposed to be some kind of secret agent fedora? What happened to the Han Solo-looking guy on the box cover?) is a secret spy, infiltrating this corporate skyscraper (the stripes are supposed to be floors, I guess) to steal the secret files (a yellow bar at the top level) then I guess the marketing pitch worked on you.
The fry guys (there are always two of them) are supposed to be building security. They can shoot you, or kill you just by touching you! You have a gun, and the power to...get ready now...duck. Yes, you can duck by pulling the joystick down, thus avoiding the fry guys fire. Between each level, and I suppose this is the gimmick of the game, are elevators. Take the elevators to the top level, avoid the fry guys, and take the secret files. For this, you are rewarded with...more secret files which appear right where you just started. Why didn't your guy just get those while he was down there? Anyway, go back down and get THOSE secret files...at which time, another will appear at the top, and on and on into...eternity, I guess. The sound effects here are decent. Your gunfire is a little ''ping'' sound, while the fry guys' guns have a little more sizzle to them. The footsteps of you spy sound like he's walking on his tip-toes...sneaky. Whenever you get the ''files'' a little alarm song sounds. It's fun to make your little spy do a dance to the song, by moving him back and forth and ducking up and down.
Now, here is the fun part. The more files you get, the more ticked the fry guys get. If you get those files enough times, or shoot enough fry guys, they just get so riled up! And soon, they will NOT be denied! You will parish!
You are awarded more lives at ten-thousand point intervals, but what's the point? You get to that stage in this game where the fry guys get angry, there's no going any further.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/02, Updated 08/31/02