Universal Chaos

Also known as: N/A

Developer: VSS

Universal Chaos is actually pretty fun...And that kind of surprised me. I’m not entirely sure why, but I expected very little from this game. Maybe because it was released in 1988, but unlike most games released in the late-80’s for the Atari 2600, it doesn’t look like any effort was made to push the graphical limitations of the hardware. But, as I often say, looks aren’t anything. While Universal Chaos isn’t a graphical wonder, it gets the important thing right – gameplay. Basically, you've got a grid on the screen and you control a car that can fire bullets forward. You want to shoot the other cars on the screen while they make an effort to ram into you. The action can get frantic at times, which is really where the game seems to be at its most fun. It’s no Twisted Metal (nor could it be on the hardware it runs on) but for its time, it was very enjoyable. It's still a solid action game today that deserves a spot in any Atari 2600 collector's collection if you’re able to track down a copy.

Review added: 09/29/2019

Up 'N Down

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Sega

Up 'N Down was a hit in the arcades, enough of one that it got a port on Atari's popular home console. The idea of Up 'N Down is that you're driving a car with the ability to jump. Your goal is to hop between two roads while speeding up, slowing down, and hopping over vehicles to avoid traffic while also trying your best to not run yourself off the road with a mis-timed jump that sends you hurling into the non-paved area around you. It's not a simple game of avoiding passive cars, though. There are vehicles in the game that try to crash into you…maybe to cash in on insurance claims? And aside from avoiding all the vehicular mayhem, you'll be trying to pick up items like flags and balloons to boost up your score. It takes a while to get used to everything here, but once you do, it's not a terrible game. While this isn't necessarily a great port of the arcade original, Up 'N Down is a passable game that manages to capture enough of the gameplay of the original to make it worth owning for fans of the arcade original.

Review added: 04/11/2024