Joust

"Ride an ostrich and fight other guys riding ostriches, but surprisingly fun"

I'm sure you've all encountered this game at one time or another, but it deserves another look. You play the role of a man who has to defeat evil knights all while everybody's riding an ostrich. Sound weird? Well it is, but maybe that's what's so fun about it. In an era where every game was trying to copy Pacman, Joust had an original idea, that made it a fantastic game, one of the best games ever for the 2600!

Ok, so how do you do it? You can run around, and there's a button that will make you flap your wings. Keep pressing the button, and your ostrich (player 2 rides a stork!) will fly (since when did ostriches fly?). The object is to ram into the enemies but you have to be higher than them to defeat them. If you're lower than they are, you'll be defeated instead! Add to this the fact that there's a Pterodactyl flying around that can only be defeated with a head on ram to the beak, lava pits you can fall into, and eggs that defeated knights leave behind which will hatch into more knights and you have a great 2600 games.

While the graphics look really bad by today's standards, if you think about the game from the perspective of it being a 2600 game, and you'll see that the game's graphics are really outstanding. There isn't much sound to speak of, but that's ok, it's better to make your own sound effects anyway.

If you have a second player handy, then get them to play this game too! With two people playing, it's twice as fun to take out the evil knights, and you won't run as much of a risk of the eggs hatching, as the other player can grab them too (but they'll get the bonus points).

Another great thing about this game was the bonus levels. The room just fills up with eggs and you get to collect them for big points. Be careful though, if you dilly dally, the eggs will hatch, and you'll be in big trouble!

If you have a 2600, you owe it to yourself to have this game. If you don't have a 2600, try to get this game on a different platform. It's that good.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/07/01