Atari Climber - Atari 2600

I questioned myself a couple times before I started writing this review because the game I am about to talk about is a homebrew.  For those of you who don’t know, a homebrew game is an unlicensed game designed by a consumer.  I’m usually not a fan of homebrew games just because the product of homebrews can sometimes result in utter catastrophe, but I bring specific attention to this game because it did not result in an atrocity, but rather an amazing product that I consider to be one of my favorites on the system.

Atari Climber is incredibly difficult to find a cartridge of because it was only produced in small amounts by the creator under the title Climber 5.  However, the game was actually discovered and praised by the developers at Atari, so much in fact, that the game was later included in the forty selectable games on the plug ‘n’ play Atari Flashback 2.0 console, released by Atari in July of 2005.

The game works like this; you control your human player on the screen with the objective to reach the ball that is located near the top of the screen.  In order to reach the ball at the top of the screen, your player must climb a series of ladders while avoiding horizontally moving lasers (they are actually supposed to be girders, but I like thinking of them as laser beams) on each floor of the level.  Also depending on what level of difficulty you are playing on, you may also need to dodge equipment such as helmets and hammers that fall from the top of the screen.

The time aspect works much like the bonus points method in the original arcade version of Donkey Kong.  You have a certain amount of time to reach the ball and depending on how quickly you reach it, the more bonus points you acquire.  However, if you fail to reach the ball in the allotted time limit, you gain no bonus points and lose a life.  Also after a certain amount of time in each level, the ball will transport to a different area on the screen.  So you have to plan your trip quickly and carefully as to not have to back track when the ball transports.

The game also allows the player to control the direction the laser beams travel at the cost of 500 points from their time meter.  By pressing the button on the Atari Joystick, the lasers will instantly reverse direction, potentially getting your player out of some close calls.  This aspect keeps the player from seeing the movements of the lasers as being “cheap” and “unfair” by giving the player a bit of control over the matter.

The controls are very responsive and not delayed at all.  You’ll also never find yourself fighting against the joystick like you may have to do in some Atari 2600 games.  The game play itself is actually incredibly addicting and since the movement of the lasers and the falling equipment is completely random, it gives the game a lot of replay value.  I’ve owned the Atari Flashback 2.0 for few months now and I still find myself going back and playing Atari Climber, trying to beat my high score.

If you ever see an Atari Flashback 2.0 at a garage sale or your local game store, I would definitely recommend picking it up.  Aside from Atari Climber, you get a lot of classic Atari games that will keep you entertained for a long time.