Combat

The Good
It's the quick fix of violence that satisfies in COMBAT - no strategy, no negotiations, no resource mining and research trees. It's just you and the "FIRE" button on a blocky-abstract battlefield sent to put a hurtin' on that bastard in the other tank or airplane. There's nothing like lining up the enemy in your sights and knocking him spinning backwards, over and over and over again. The variety in settings helps keep it interesting past those first couple of matches, and the primitive mechanics lead to a few surprises of their own - how long did you laugh at your friend, curve-jerking bullets around the barriers into him, before you finally let him in on the secret?

The Bad
We're dealing with Pre-Cambrian technology here, so don't expect much presentational flair. Or music. Or color. And some of the multiple game modes you'll just skip on by. And they didn't exactly beta test this stuff, so if you don't have the constitution to be on the victimized end of some nail-pulling cheap tricks, stay away.

The Bottom Line
As pure and unadorned as its title, and user-friendly enough that anyone can pick it up and get a few minutes of fun even today.

The Good
The Combat cartridge, like most of the early VCS games, included many games, giving the players a wide variety of options to choose from. So even if the tank games seem a little boring at first, the "pong" and invisible variations give some twist to the combat. And soon enough, you feel that the delight of blasting the opponent's tank grows on you. Interesting feature, you can fly your aircraft from to one side and reappear at the other, for some surprise shooting at the enemy's tail.

The Bad
You always need a partner to play Combat, so make sure to keep some friends around (and let them win once in a while). But it would have been nice to have some variations for a single player. Aiming is a little awkward when you dispose only of 8 possible angles. However from a tactical point of view, this limitation may prove not so negative. Please note that the tanks were probably very light at some time in history, because I've seen mine fly across a whole field when it got hit by the enemy. The graphics are quite simplistic. No use of music is made during the game, but the sound effects do their job.

The Bottom Line
Simple, yet effective. The game requires a little exploration, but once you find suitable variations, and an interesting partner, you can play for hours once you've developed some tactics. Ain't bad considering how early it got published!

The Good
Playing this game with a friend could yield hours of entertainment, as it is a shoot-'em-up at its most visceral. This ranks second only to Space Invaders as the best early 2600 game, and can be enjoyed even today.

The Bad
If you didn't have two players, it was a very dull game. The sound was primitive, even by the standards of the day, and there was no music.

The Bottom Line
This is a basic action shooter, Atari 2600 style, consisting of a pair of tanks, jet planes, or biplanes trying to shoot each other.