Gopher

"Not to be taken as a gardening tip!"

One of the less popular Atari games, Gopher is a simple game that doesn't involve much skill. Although it gets harder as the game progresses, it's still not much of a challenge for experienced gamers to play.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics aren't much (as with most all old Atari games), but since there aren't many characters on the screen at a time, this game is able to have more recognizable graphics than games such as Joust and Firefly. This is a single-screen game (like Donkey Kong) and, in turn, doesn't have a background. However, that just makes the other graphics stand out more. The farmer looks just as he should, with a cartoon-like design and a shovel, but the gophers have their own problems. You would think that a game this small and simple with the ability to make the farmer and even the grass look good would do the same for the gophers themselves (after all, they ARE the stars of the game in a way). Alas, they look like little brown blobs with legs and tails, which is the only thing that brings this section down a bit. Although the graphics are simple, they are very easy on the eyes.

Gameplay: 8/10

The purpose of this game is to stop the gophers from stealing your vegetables. In order to do so, you have to stop them from burrowing into your crop by ''beating'' their tunnels with your shovel. How in the world you're able to destroy a tunnel by beating the ground above it is beyond me, but that's how it works in this game. You move from side to side to make sure the gophers don't come through, and you accumulate points at the same time. It's fairly easy to pull all of this off, but unfortunately that's all you do and yes, it does get quite old after a while.

Sound: 10/10

Surprisingly good! There's a little bit of ''arcade-style'' music at the beginning as well as a few sound effects. There's the shovel hitting the ground and the gopher's digging which sounds a little off, but it's still entertaining. My personal favorite is the ''na, na, na-na, na'' music you get when a gopher pops it's head up above ground. For the most part, the sound is excellent.

Fun: 4/10

Obviously the lowest part of the review. The game is fun for the first several minutes, then it just starts to get more and more boring. It's a great concept for a game, but it isn't one that makes for a long and worthwhile game such as some of the classic Atari greats. I played this game many times throughout my childhood though, so it's definitely an entertaining choice for very young or inexperienced gamers (although the difficulty may be a little much for them).

Rent/Buy?

I'm sure you won't be able to find this one anywhere simply because of it's age, but if you ever do run across it and you like classic games of this genre, then by all means try it out. I will say that you'll probably get burnt out on it by the end of one play, so it may be better to choose an alternate (and more entertaining) game such as Pacman or Frogger.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/02, Updated 11/07/02