If you haven't seen it yet, Gremlins is a movie about irresponsible people dealing with cute fuzzy creatures which then turn into ugly goblins that love to cause mayhem. With this in mind, the Atari 2600 game adaptation of the 80s movie gets some points straight while missing out on the majority of what the movie portrays. This is not necessarily a bad thing either.
Credit: AtariAfter a cheerful tune on the title screen plays, you get transported to the first half which has you try and catch the entire rogue Mowgli before they devour a line of hamburgers on the street. After a couple of waves or so you get extra points for any surviving hamburger and go on to the second part of the game, which has you shooting at the now evolved gremlins who try to get to you from the top of the screen. If you succeed on killing off all Gremlins, the game will begin anew with the first half albeit increasing in speed and difficulty until you run out of lives.
Credit: AtariThis premise does not follow much on what is based on but enough to expose how you will deal with Gremlins after their Mowgli forms do away with the food present. The addition of the first half of the game saves the trouble of this becoming an all out shooter with an endless wave of Gremlins coming at you. It is important to note that it really doesn't matter how many burger you end up saving from the ever hungry Mowgli, being that after the first part is over, said remaining burgers turn into cocoons anyway to pave the way to the second part of the game. The point of having any burgers left only adds to the overall score and nothing else.
Credit: AtariThe first half of the game is a well designed stage, a lot more designed than its second half which only has a gray background to play on. All characters and items are also well designed, although the protagonist here seems to be either bald or his brain sticks out. Would be nice if a splash of color would be added to his scalp.
In short, Gremlins is a nice game to spend on if you want to kill a few minutes, racking up score while protecting burgers which no doubt some irresponsible people just left out for Mowgli to get their Gremlin on.
