Joust

"A decent port"

Joust is by far one of my least favorite games from my childhood. However Microsoft gave me a free code for the game so I figured I'd give the game a go.

The graphics are pretty good. It's easy to tell who an enemy is. The dragons look pretty cool and the colors are nice. But still it's an old game and not a lot of work was put into making this an update like a few other Live Arcade games are.

The sounds are amusing. The boinks, roars and whatever else there is brings me great amusement when I hear them. Just very cheesy. The music is alright but forgettable.

This game is horrible to control. If your bird was a soggy turd then this is how it would control. It's stiff, slow and can be rather unresponsive at times. And it's a shame because the game actually is kind of fun.

The idea behind Joust is that there are other guys on flying birds and you need to land on their heads to kill them. It sounds simple and to be honest it is but the game gets hectic.

Perhaps it's the controls that make this game so hard but I remember as a kid never winning and now I know why. You really need to read the how to play option to learn the basics.

The game sends wave after wave. They get faster and there are more of them as you advance. If you take too long on a stage a dragon appears. Instead of needing to land on them like the other people you will need to ram the beast head on which is harder than it seems because they move rather quickly.

When you hit an enemy they drop a green egg like object. Collect that before the bird can or the enemy will come back. It does get hectic and it is fun.

The game also offers a versus mode which I didn't try because no one was on. There is also a co-op mode which I imagine is a blast but again there was no one on.

Joust is a pretty fun game but the bad controls kind of ruin it for me. The addition of on-line really makes the game last longer but the difficulty can be a problem as well. The game does have some good achievements though and should keep any gamer going for a while.

Story - 0/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 4/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay value - 8/10

Final Score - 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/07

Game Release: Joust (US, 11/22/05)