New Tech Revives Old Console
We may be thirty years removed from the days of parachute pants and Miami Vice but that doesn’t mean that the 80’s have died. The classics of the decade are back and better than ever, or at least as good as they can be given the technology at the time. Intellivision Lives brings over sixty classic games into the new millennium and onto your DS.
Upon turning your DS on, the upper screen reveals the old school Intellivision and a few key components from its games. As I peered down to the bottom screen a tear was brought to my eye. "Touch here to enter the 1980’s…" is one of the greatest introductions to a game ever. It was an amazing idea to allow the players to time travel back to the 80’s, although I do warn you a sudden urge to watch ET while listening to Duran Duran may occur.
The best place to start is the set up of the games due to the shear volume of games consisted on this one cartridge-oh, how far we have come. With so many classic games collected in one place, it can be hard to find a place to start, but the much more modern DS compiles these games into a very organized and easy fashion. Just use your Intellvision controller to cycle through the six different categories Space, Arcade, Battle, Sports, Gaming, and Multiplayer.
No matter the player’s familiarity with the game, it’s rather easy to find the specific title desired. As soon as the main title was on I was easily able to navigate to certain games such as Snafu, Pinball, B-17 and Buzz Bombers. Navigation is very player friendly so don’t worry about getting confused.
One key component to this game is the transfer of the original controller to the DS touch screen. Virtual Play and Intellivision Productions obviously wanted to keep the nostalgic feel to the game, but increase the functionality.
Although this may have been the ultimate idea, it seemed to be very glitchy, and in most cases, easier to just use the face buttons. For some games, such as Checkers, the touch control screen is very complicated and really takes away from the game trying to decipher their 80’s language.
With sixty games in one place there is always that fear that something is forgotten or overlooked, and this game is not without its minor flaws. The high score rankings do not work on all of the games.
Another minor issue was the items on Minotaur. Although player can view and cycle them, not all are available for use.
The only major issue that really could backfire is the fact that some of the most popular Intellivision titles were not included in this collection, such as Tron Deadly Disk and Burgertime. Perhaps there were licensing issues with those?
Still, if you remember these titles from the past, or are looking for an arcade game that is well worth the money, then check this game out. Players are sure to find a few games that they can become lost in for hours on end. With an average retail of only $14.99, there is not too much risk in giving this collection a shot.
I give it a very respectable 3.5 GiN Gems.