Kong: King of Atlantis
Well, for some strange reason (ie: greed) someone on the Majesco marketing department thought that they could make money by releasing a Gameboy game based on that same concept. Boy, were they wrong. This entire endeavor is nothing more than an attempt to grab the crumbs from the table of Peter Jackson's King Kong. Nobody wins here; not the kids that are suckered into playing this game and not the company that put its label on the box.
Gameplay:
In Kong: King of Atlantis you'll be controlling (and I do use that term loosely) Kong, Jason (Kong's human brother), and Lua (the slutty shaman). The only problem is that each of them plays exactly the same; and I'm talking to the letter. You'd think that there would be some variety found it the gameplay, but no. The only variety that you'll find here is the creative amount of expletives that will spew from your mouth as you constantly die and smash your GBA.
You see, each character can jump and attack…well, that's pretty much it. There are some modifiers to your moves, but frankly they don't do a darned thing. Heck, they are even misrepresented in the instruction manual. So if you're expecting to make Jason do a cool uppercut punch, you'll have to pause for a moment and scratch your head wondering why he just did a kick. No you didn't press the wrong button either, someone royally screwed up somewhere along the line; that's all. It's kind of funny too because that's not the only instance where the game shows its distinct lack of quality.
You can forget the fact that the characters control poorly and that all of the moves are the same. Heck, I could have almost looked over the misprinting of the special attacks in the manual. But, when a game is as blatantly un-fun as this one is I have to take issue with it. After all, we play games to have a good time.
Last I checked, this was supposed to be a kid's game. Children's games are supposed to be easy and fun, right? Wrong! Just imagine a six or seven year old playing a game where they are only given five lives and are forced into situations where no matter what they do they will die. To make matters worse there are no continues and the game employs a password system to catalog their crappy progress. Now, I am a seasoned gamer of twenty-something years and I shook with rage as I continually struggled with most of these levels. I can't imagine how a kid would handle it. Undoubtedly they may find themselves on behavior modification drugs or in some form of therapy. I know I could use that right about now.
I think I can honestly say that I have never encountered a game quite like Kong: King of Atlantis, and that's not a good thing. I pride myself on being able to look past the bad bits and find something good to talk about. Unfortunately, I have nothing to say in that regard. The game is repetitive with poor level design and features some of the laziest, most frustrating, and poorly implemented control I have ever faced. Avoid this game at all costs.
Graphics:
If Kong: King of Atlantis has any remotely redeeming quality it has to be the graphics. The colorful backgrounds and characters almost look like they could be average at best, and that's the best compliment you'll get out of me for this game. The animation is minimal to the point that games on the NES looked livelier. The character designs are pretty ugly and enemy skins are repetitive to the point that they are beyond reproach.
Audio:
What's that I hear? Silence! Granted it's only artificial because I had to turn the volume off on my GBA thanks to this games lousy audio. The music grated my ears and the few sound effects that made their way onto this cart didn't help matters out much.
Conclusion:
Kong: King of Atlantis is up for contention as the worst videogame that I have played in my whole life. The gameplay was infuriating thanks to its shoddy nature and it really brings to question how much play-testing actually went into this product before release. The graphics are palatable, but not very, and the sound is better with the volume shut off. Apart from the fact that this game is a blatant attempt to cash in on Peter Jackson's success, there may be some kids out there that actually liked the cartoon. If that's the case in your household I still can't even in good conscience recommend the game in any way. This is a skipper from start to finish.