Gorf
is four games in one. Here’s why that’s
not ALWAYS a good thing. Gorf is four CRAPPY games in one. Is that a
bargain? Not to me. I remember when Gorf first graced my local arcade
spot. It seemed like a bit of an anomoly, taking bits of other games that were
already considered primitive (Space Invaders and Galaxian),
stripping those down even more, then adding a few spinoffs to the mix. Well, it
wasn’t all that great then, it’s pretty bad now, and it’s just plain AWFUL
on the Atari 5200.
Four of the five arcade scenes are here: Astro Battles (Space Invaders with just three rows of aliens), Laser Attack (Galaxian minus two thirds of the attackers but with two fast laser guns added in), Space Warp (Space Invaders with just one invader spinning around the playfield), and Flag Ship (one ship zipping back and forth as you shoot through its hull). Missing is the real Galaxian scene, but most every home port of Gorf is missing this screen. Curious.
If it were a direct port of the arcade, I’d probably give it a 6. These games are pretty tired by today’s standards, and like I said, Gorf was never really "original" anyway. Come to think of it, Gorf is the video game equivalent of a K-Tel record: Lots of hits no longer on the charts and not guaranteed to be the original artist!
Finally, there’s the Atari 5200 problems: this time the stick works in analog fashion by moving you entirely too fast around the playfield. It takes time just to handle the thing. Then there’s the buttons that just make your hands hurt after a few minutes. Put it all together and you get this wonderful score. Even if you use a Wico stick you’ll find that careful maneuvering around the barrage of enemy fire is almost always impossible. In these action arcade games, you sometimes have to be able to move exactly two pixels to get out of harm’s way - not one, not three, but two. It just can’t be done with this conversion, leading to low scores to add to your cramped left hand.
If you’re at a garage sale and you see this one, give the owner my condolences!
