The A-Team

"Zombie Nation's Grandfather...."

Whoa. First of all, I wanted to mention the fact that this game was never released, (I can see why) so the only place you can get your hands on it is to download the rom. I don't see why you would want to, especially after reading this review.

A simple way to turn you off from this game is to simply inform you of your main objective: You are Mr. T's head, and you must save Hannibal from something, I am not sure what. You find yourself playing through the same 2 levels over and over again, and I am not even sure if there is an end to the madness.

Mr. T is not unarmed however. He shoots bullets out of his face, or at least that's what I see him doing when you press the fire button. The bullets fly in the direction of the d-pad. In other words, if you are holding left and up and press fire, the bullet goes to the upper-left direction. As you aim, you find yourself moving Mr. T as well. This isn't bad because Mr. T is set up in the center of the level and he is not vulnerable from his left and right side, but from above and below him when enemies shoot at you. Not too challenging, but weird. After a minute or two, by the time a dumb rocket ship has slowly made it's way to the top of the screen (???), you proceed to the next level against a boss.

Before I explain Level 2, I would like to mention the graphics, as they are very strange. The only reason I gave this game a rating of 2 instead of 1 is because I admire games with strange graphics. I thought A-Team deserved an extra point for the strange graphics, but to most they may be a little too obscure. Mr. T looks like Mr. T, er, um, I mean Mr. T's head... My question is: Why Mr. T's head? Couldn't they have just made him smaller? The enemies look very strange. There are standard human enemies that run left and right and shoot bullets at you, which look to be standard human atari graphics, but other enemies are considered to me the weirdest thing about this game, (along with the dumb bonus boss battle and the rocket ship.) They resemble a simplified ''dollar sign'', more of an ''S'', with a mechanic cap and a white line running through them. They kinda resemble those windup enemies in Bubble Bobble for NES, but still look nothing like them. I have no clue as to what the hell I have been looking at, but my guess is some kind of robot. I have taken screenshots of them, zoomed up, but I still have no clue as to what they are! The rocket has cool effects, but that's about the only thing I thought was done nicely. Heck, atari graphics are not always pleasing to the eye, unless it is seeing Yar destroy his nemesis :), but what I saw in A-Troop was just plain obscure, and to not have the slightest clue as to what the majority of the graphics stand for is just pathetic!

As for the music, I am unsure is there is any, if so, it obviously wasn't that bad if I cannot recollect there being any. The sounds were basic bullet shots and other atari sounds, and they were not bad. Atari is not a system with a reputation for having outstanding sounds, but the sounds in this game are to the point, which is very good. There is nothing worse than hearing Grover's Musical Party, or whatever, blasting in your ears, so sounds and music being tolerable and/or semi-absent is good.

After level 1, you are transferred to a small room in which you go up against the same idiotic enemy seen walking around Level 1, except now he is a boss. This level is still very unclear to me, because it makes no real sense at all. Mr. T. traded his bullets for these pointless electric waves that just move towards the enemy and dissapear. There might be some kind of result after shooting these off, but not that I know of. At the same time, your opponent shoots a single bullet that ricochets off the walls. To beat him, or at least how I beat him, you stay alive for about a minute, and he ''dies'' I think. Then it goes to a screen in which a yellow thing multiplies in front of you, and blows up, and then you go back to a level resembling level 1.

The game is bizzare, and I can see why it was never released. Only mildly fun at the beginning, yet too easy, horrible graphics, a really messy level layout and concept, and nothing to really aim for makes A-Troop a stupid mess, and probably the weirdest game I have ever played in my life. It makes no sense at all in my eyes, but hey, that's atari for you... Wait! What am I saying? Atari has some of the greatest games ever introduced to mankind! I think it's just A-Troop with all the flaws. It is unfair to blame atari for this disaster...

If you like to collect rare atari abortions, you might like to pick this game up, if the cartridge still exists that is... I don't see why somebody would want to play this game for a second time though...

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/19/02, Updated 11/08/02