"Who needs graphics? Prepare to go old-school!"

First off, I love all this new fancy high tech stuff that companies are putting out on the market today. Some games even bring back the fun and challenge of the old days of Atari and the NES. Sometimes I definitely feel that older games are harder than most newer games (except for RPGs that is...). Who out there remembers playing Super Mario Bros. (the first one) for the NES? Harder than Super Mario Sunshine, I can tell you that much! How about Lolo, or City Connection? Perhaps those are more obscure titles, but truely, NES games provided quite a bit of challenge, but yet fun at the same time. They weren't about a complicated storyline, extraordinary graphics, and painfully hard to unlock secrets. It was about a combination of fun and challenge that worked. And then, Atari! Pitfall anyone? And then there were the many, many other games that could be played with friends, racing games, sports games, etc., which are all credits to anyone's Atari collection, and, once again, most provided that golden blend of fun and challenge...Keystone Kapers is an excellent example of this blend, and also happens to be one of my favorite Atari games, and I will now describe to you why!
Controls: Umm...
Okay, the Atari controller is very amusing to look at nowadays, considering that the standard Atari controller only had a button and a joystick (not the 'controller stick' we use today). The PlayStation's controller has 4 main buttons (X, O, triangle, and square), two controller sticks, one analog pad (the four main directions), various buttons (L1, L2, L3, R1, R2, and R3), plus start and select! Game Cube's controller is rougly the same, minus the L2, L3, R2, R3, and select, plus the buttons are named other things (A, B, X, Y, C stick, Z, etc.). So, controls are getting much more complex now than a button and a joystick! NES was a bit more 'complicated', with it's innovative directional buttons, start and select, plus the A and B buttons that most of us are quite familiar with now; all of Nintendo's systems have contained the A and B buttons. So, the controls aren't that big of a deal, considering that there's only one button and one method of controlling your character...
Game Play: 7/10
Basically, all you are is a cop-type character chasing after a prison escapee in a mall-type area...The control is easy enough (this is an Atari game, remember?) and the levels are still fun to play again and again. The main idea is to jump over and/or dodge obsticals as they come at you and pick up dropped money along the way, which contributes to your score. You have only 50 seconds to catch the prison escapee, and the more time left you have when you catch him, the more points you get. The first three levels are easy enough, with a few additional obstacles. After that however, there are obstacles that come at you, with full force! The shopping cart, for example, goes at a slow pace at first, and all you have to do is jump over it. Later, it goes ultra-fast, and eventually becomes near-impossible to avoid! If you do manage to run into any obstacle, it will deduct some time from the 50 seconds (the seconds deducted depend on which obstacle you run into). One of the obstacles, a plane, causes your character to instantly lose a life; of which you have three of! In other words; the plane is your enemy! You must duck down to avoid it, whereas the others you must jump over. Since the obstacles, including the plane, begin to go faster as you progress in the levels, the plane will become progressively difficult to avoid. The other obstacles, the bullet and the cannon, aren't too hard to get past, though.
Graphics: I'm not even giving a score for this...
If I do more reviews for Atari or NES games, a graphics score isn't really that neccessary unless the game offers something really eye-catching, 'new' (for that time), innovative, and/or unique. Atari games especially, since thost graphics were little customized blocks combined to make more 'detailed' characters, with simple backgrounds and color effects. So, therefore, this score will be left as an unknown...
Story: Huh? What? Come again?:
Challenge: 6/10:
Hmm, I'd say that this was fairly challenging. I've certainly played much more challenging games; both old and new. It starts to get harder as the levels progress, but nothing so hard or critical that it will make you get too frustrated.
Sound: 7/10:
There were a few sounds here and there for jumping, crashing into something, etc. But there was one continuous sound of the your character walking...It definitely does NOT make up for the game's lack of music (see below).
Music: 1/10:
There was absolutely NO music! That cost this game two points in the final rating, because music is essential to every game! However, I didn't give Keystone Kapers a bigger overall score deficit considering that, after all, this is an Atari game, and music isn't that critical to it's success. I'm sure that they could have put some catchy jingle or tune in there SOMEWHERE! It didn't have to be anything intricate or long; just a simple, nice, catchy, and clever musical piece!
Replayablitiy:
I'd say that this is quite the replayable game. You can compare and compete with your freind's scores and try to beat your own record as many times as you want, which is always a good feature for any game to have, and is fun too. However, this is bound to get boring eventually...
Buy or Rent?:
Chances are, you won't be able to find ANY Atari games available to buy, and an even smaller chance that you'll find it anywhere to rent. eBay is a great place to go to buy and sell old games, so you might want to try that. If you do happen to find it to buy at a store or on eBay, it will probably be really cheap (the most you'll probably see is $5.00), so I recommend that you go ahead and buy it. If the game ends up not working, then its not much of a loss as far as money goes, but you'll be missing out on a classic and great Atari game...I got Keystone Kapers from a friend of mine who gave all of his Atari games and his Atari to me, since he had recently gotten a PlayStation and didn't want his Atari anymore, so that was lucky for me! You could always use an emulator, though.
Final Score: 7/10:
Overall, I'd have to say that this is the best Atari game I've played (aside from Burgertime, that is). It's a must have for any gamer's collection!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/02, Updated 04/20/03