Kangaroo

"Rescue your joey from evil monkeys! sounds like fun..."

The Atari 2600 was the first truly popular multi home videogame system. However, with every game system, some of the games are just...well, weird. Take Kangaroo for example. The fact that you're a female kangaroo boxer beating the crap out of monkeys oughtta catch your eye.

This is as simple as it can get. You are a kangaroo and you have to climb to the top of each level to rescue your joey from a band of renegade monkeys. The monkeys will go after you too, but a good punch in the kisser will slow them down. There is fruit to collect too, but if you really want to score heavy points, be sure to find that level's bell. Everytime the bell is rang, the fruit is changed to a different fruit of higher point value. You can get the fruit and then ring the bell, get the better fruit, ring the bell and so on. There are tricky jumps that are almost impossible to accomplish (despite the fact they're about a cenimeter long) due to the fact that your kangaroo can't jump worth crap. It's not too hard however, and you'll be rescuing joeys in no time. The game seems to be a clone of Donkey Kong, and even the game repeats after the first four levels...

The graphics are well...not the best. Your character definately looks like a kangaroo with boxing gloves, but the monkeys...I'm not quite sure what they look like. I had to look at the art on the front of the cartridge to even figure out that they were monkeys. The sound is great though. At the end of every level the game plays "Oh Susanna" with surprising clarity.

If you're an Atari 2600 junkie, than this game will be a nice addition to your collection. It may not be the best game ever created, but it's certainly not the worst, and it's worth a look at.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/07/01