Right so its time for the second part of my look at some of my favourite Atari games from the past and this one will be on the platform game, Keystone Kapers which was originally released for the Atari 2600 back in 1983. So how has it stood up to the test of time??? Well let's find out.
Oh and since there is practically no story involved in this game (as is much the case for most Atari games) there will be no spoiler alerts ahead. So let's get to it!
P.S. (Update on 26.06.16) I had made some errors in this review where I incorrectly put Harry's name instead of Kelly when describing the playable character but these have been fixed now!
PREMISE AND GAMEPLAY
Well I'll start by mentioning what the premise of the game is and that is it involves a police officer named Keystone Kelly chasing a robber named Harry Hooligan through a department store and Kelly simply has to prevent Harry from escaping the store...and that's it!
As for the gameplay itself well its fairly straight forward and its primarily involves the playable character of Kelly running after Harry through the store which has four floors (including the top floor). And during the game Kelly must avoid a series of hazards that come toward him such as shopping trolleys, flying toy biplanes, bouncing beachballs and radios and as the game progresses the levels get harder and the hazards move faster and faster. Kelly during the game can run and jump to avoid obstacles and he can also crouch to evade the biplanes.
Kelly can use a lift that takes him between the 1st and 3rd floors in order to try and cut off Harry from making his escape easier, however if you reach the floor Harry is on, Harry can then double back and head the opposite way, which means Kelly may have to change between floors in the lift. The game also features escalators which Kelly can also use to get to an upper level however he can't go down them again as they only go up.
As for the game's HUD (Heads Up Display for those unfamiliar with the term) it shows Kelly's lives as three police helmet icons but he does have an additional life after you lose your first three and the player is award an extra life every 10,000 points in the game. The game has a timer that counts down from 50 seconds and if the player runs out of time they will lose a life. Kelly can incur a time penalty if he collides with obstacles such as a trolley or a beech ball and he will instantly lose a life if he runs into a toy biplane. The game also displays a map of the store layout, which also shows the lift and what level the lift is currently on, which will determine how long Kelly needs to wait before he can get into it.
As for the scoring system the player will received additional points for whatever time is left, which is multiplied as the game progesses and Kelly can also pick up a suitcase of money too that will award him 50 points each.
GRAPHICS
Getting onto the game's graphics while they are not particularly amazing looking, they do look pretty good for their time and the game has a nice use of colour with a mixture of green for the department store levels and yellow for the floors. The game also makes use of a sky backdrop which is blue and it shows grey rooftops overlooking the department store. The animations for the two characters are also not bad and the movement of the characters is quite fluid. So overall for its time, Keystone Kapers is a pretty decent looking game.
SOUND
As for the sounds, well they are pretty basic as you would expect for an Atari game but they are actually quite good too, as the constant sound of Kelly's running is pretty cool and it actually sounds like someone is tapping a snare drum over and over. The other noises are pretty simple and are electronic beeps (for Kelly picking up a suitcase) or bloops (for jumping) and an error type "dang" noise for when Kelly collides with an obstacle and the only other sound is the counter for the score. Overall its pretty simple Atari sounds but they have an appeal all of their own.
FLAWS
As for the game's flaws.....well Keystone Kapers isn't perfect of course and one of its problems like so many Atari games of the time is that there is literally no end to the game as the game goes on and on until the player loses their lives. So again similar to Frostbite there is no real end goal here other than catching Harry and you have to do it over and over and over again! I mean on a side note I just have to ask, how many times does Harry need to try and rob the store??? I mean surely he must realise crime doesn't pay! ;-)
Another issue is to do with the game's difficulty level as it get's hard pretty quickly as the game's hazards get faster and faster as each level passes. And it get's to the point where hazards such as the shopping trolleys and the biplanes get so fast you are bound to collide with them, which will either cost you a life or impinge on your time to complete a level. And the beach balls in particular are a real pain given it get's to the point where you need to jump over two or three of them per screen before you can move on.
Then there is the issue of waiting for that bloody lift as it goes up and down between floors, which can also be a real pain in the arse as the levels get tougher quite often shopping trollies fly past you and Harry needs to jump to avoid them while he waits for the lift. And this quite often ends with Harry mistiming his jump as the trolleys get faster and faster, which again impinges on your time, the only good thing about this though is that the trolleys disppear once you hit them.
As for another quirk in the game that's a bit annoying as I previously mentioned is Kelly can only go up the store escalators and not down them yet Harry can manage to presumably do so as he appears on the level below if you are unable to catch him before he reaches the escalator. So this is another frustrating obstacle that adds more time penalties onto your progress as you need to run back to the lift and try and get Harry from there!
And lastly I have to ask: why the hell are there suitcases of money for Kelly to pick up just lying around the store???? I mean this makes no sense whatsoever and its almost like its a temptation for Kelly to steal this money for himself! Again its like a rather bizzare inclusion by the programmers which appears to be there simply just for bonus points (but only 50 points a time).
Anyways that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, Keystone Kapers is a very enjoyable platform game and is still fun after 33 years with its simple premise and its basic but also challenging gameplay. And if you can get a hold of this game (which is easy using Atari ROM and emulator websites) I'd certainly recommend giving it a go.
Right that's it for now and I'll be back again sometime soon!
Till the next un bye for now!
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