Future Publishing


Burger Party

Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: Futurs
Machine: Amstrad CPC464/664/6128

 
Published in Amstrad Action 118

Slightly misleading title. It's not an eating contest, but a shoot-'em-up with a ketchup bottle ship fighting against the evil hordes of burgers and French fries.

Burger Party

I don't much know about the background of this game, but judging from what I've observed I'd say this game was developed at one of those CPC demo parties of yesteryear - 1995 to be exact where the coders probably had a pig out session on junk food and Pepsi and decided to make a game about it. Have a play and you'll see what I mean. The loading screen is a picture of a digitised burger, looks like a McDonalds burger.

A "B" floats from right to left once the game has loaded and it resembles the "B" out of Burnin' Rubber - once the "B" makes it to the left the screen opens up and some nice graphics and colour changing fonts appear. A catchy tune constantly plays away and I begin to wonder what I'm in for.

Pressing the fire button starts the game and a flying tomato sauce bottle appears in space - this game is getting weirder and weirder. (Using an emulator like WinAPE is suggested for the game as checking the "turbo" box will make the frame rate run a little smoother). So I'm flying a tomato sauce bottle in space and what did I think I'd find in space with me? Well flying tomatoes of course but they don't have wings of a bird, or the jet engines of a plane, and neither does the flying tomato sauce bottle.

Burger Party

They appear from right to left and must be collected up as they are the ammunition used by the flying sauce bottle to shoot at the enemy. Just what could a flying tomato sauce bottle have as an enemy? Well flying burgers, French fries, pizza, lettuce, and double coned ice creams.

This might seem quite bizarre, but if you have an open mind and let your imagination run free you can see the funny side to this game. It is quite original in its concept and as a shoot-'em-up it's not bad, but certainly not great either.

The tomato sauce bottle can move around the whole screen collecting tomatoes and shooting the enemy. However, only one enemy attacks your sauce bottle at a time. First up is the burger that looks like a McDonalds Big Mac. While the sauce bottle shoots at the enemy with tomato sauce the enemy fire back with what looks like tomato sauce torpedo bottles. It takes about 15 direct hits to get the burger to disappear, then a new enemy - fries - attack the sauce bottle. The enemy move quite fast around the screen, but always seem to be in a certain pattern - hitting them can be a little risky and care is needed because if you run into them you are hit.

Second Opinion

Burger Party

Mmm, interesting theme to put into a standard shooter. I wonder if this is all a bit of fun or a satirical message of the evils of junk food.

First Day Target Score

Defeat the first boss.

Verdict

Graphics 40%
P. Some digitised images.
N. Otherwise average visuals.

Burger Party

Sound 56%
P. Okay music.
N. But no in game sound effects.

Grab Factor 30%
N. Not exactly addictive.

Staying Power 28%
N. One that you will tire off quickly.

Overall 34%
An intriguing idea implemented quite well, but ultimately lacking in variety and staying power.