I’ll
tell you the truth. I was a little surprised to find this game in my collection.
I was going through my stuff, organizing titles by manufacturer (I’m a bit
anal about collecting if you hadn’t noticed), and as I was putting my Atari
2600/Coleco boxes all together in a nice little row with edges no more than ¼”
apart from one another, I noticed that I had a Ladybug in there. I couldn’t
remember playing this game, and when I went back to the DP Guide that I had
personally edited, I realized that it had never been included. Could this be one
of those rare “finds”? Just sitting there in my collection?
Well not really. Turns out John Hardie has one as well. So does Al Backiel. Apparently this has just been one huge oversight. That semi-rare game that no one really talks about that mysteriously slips through the cracks. Well, if it’s been sitting unused in your collection as it has in mine, I’m here to tell you a bit about the beloved arcade “sleeper” that found success on the ColecoVision but was all but murdered in the Intellivision and Atari 2600 versions. Here is the story of the Atari version.
The
most endearing aspect of this Universal coin-op was the fact that it’s quite a
lot like Pac-Man but with a constantly changing maze environment. You could be
facing certain death only to turn the turnstiles and leave the bad guys on the
other side of a wall. While the Atari version keeps this feature, it’s also it’s
biggest drawback. for you see, the doors just “flick” into the alternate
position, sometimes leaving the bad guy on YOUR side of the wall. I played the
game dozens of times and could not figure out the trick to this. If they’re
close when you flip the turnstile, there’s a 50/50 chance they won’t be on
the other side of it. Sigh…
A big surprise for me was the “SPECIAL” meter, retained from the arcade game. Letters scattered on the playfield change colors at various times. Spell the word SPECIAL (there’s only 3 letters per stage so you’ll need at least 3 stages to complete this task) while the letters are red and you’re taken to the bonus harvest screen. Sounds great until you see it. I guess there wasn’t enough memory to do several different types of bonus vegetables, so all you get is the silly celery stalk all over the screen. I guess I shouldn’t complain—the Intellivision version didn’t even have this feature!
In addition, nab the letters to EXTRA while they’re colored yellow and you get a bonus ladybug. No special screen like you got in the arcade, but you do get the extra, so again, kudos for managing to keep that option intact.
Now
for the big problem. THE NOISE. I’d call it sound except that it sounds like
someone buzzing a very loud buzzer, pausing for a brief moment, then buzzing it
again. I think this is supposed to replicate the timer (a marker that runs
around the edge of the screen to indicate when a bad guy is about to emerge) and
maybe the buzz of the insects but GOD DAMMIT it’s annoying. I’m talking Fran
Drescher annoying. This is no joke. And unfortunately you kind of need the sound
on so you can hear the turnstiles switch and the dots and letters being eaten,
they’re part of the rhythm of the game. I found that when I played with the
sound off my scores were terrible. When I played with the sound on my ears were
terrible. It’s just sloppy.
And so, with moist eyes I give one of my favorite ColecoVision ports a big thumbs down for the Atari 2600. Don’t worry that the game has been forgotten over the years. I think it was intentional.
