As most of you know, I recently sold a large lot of Atari 2600 games to help raise a little funding for the site.  Our own Razor Knuckles was the proud recipient of this lot and I am happy to say that it greatly bolstered his 2600 collection and has sparked what I have seen as a genuine interest in the system.  As an Atari 2600 collector, it makes me smile knowing that others (especially those much younger than me) are still enjoying this system, even though is greatly.....er......"graphically challenged" when compared to more modern systems.

Recently, Razor Knuckles picked up a few more games and some paddle controllers, which he proudly displayed in the "small scores" thread.  I asked him to PM me if he wanted some paddle recommendations, but after thinking about it for a bit, I decided that since it had been so long since I posted an Atari review (and to get Zagnorch off my back ....see I did the wink thing, so it's cool), I would give some opinions on paddle games for the 2600.





Please note that I have put these games into 3 categories which I have affectionatly dubbed "Winkers" (great games, must haves for collectors/non-collectors), "Thinkers" (okay games, for those with a low level of collector commitment), and "Stinkers" (terrible games, serious collectors need apply only).  I have excluded several games including: card games, board games, prototypes, homebrews, and very expensive, rare titles like Birthday Mania, Beat 'em and Eat 'em, and Music Machine.  Enjoy and please leave feedback.....unless your handle begins with a "Z." 


Winkers:

Warlords - hands down the best multi-player game on the console, if you can get 4 players at a time and a few brews, it makes for a great night. Selfish plug: If anyone happens to come across a Warlords cocktail at a good price, let me know.

Kaboom! - Simple, but lots of fun. The action gets intense rather quickly.

Night Driver - Maybe the best driver for the 2600. Think early Rad Racer.

Super Breakout - The better, more colorful of the two Breakouts

Astroblast - Retitled from Astosmash for release on the 2600, it's a great shooter.

Steeplechase - whoever thought that horse-racing could be fun?  Nice multi-player.

Tac-Scan - Enemies are a little repetitive, but it's a fun shooter.

Pong Sports/Video Olympics - It's Pong. You gotta have Pong.


Thinkers:

Guardian - Not a bad shooter, but the laser is slow and elongated, which takes a lot of practice to make hits count.

G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike - Neat, but gets repetitive and boring. Co-op play is pretty good.

Demons to Diamonds - lots of people rank this among the better paddle games and for the price, a good pick up. Just not my cup of tea.

Circus Atari - Fun game, usually cheap. Gets old quick, but worth popping on occasion.

Eggomania - Poor man's Kaboom!  Blasting the bird after catching all of the eggs is super difficult and more based on luck than skill; could have done without this feature.

Breakout - Cheap and still fun. You should own the original, but it's predecessor is better.

Picnic - A neat game, but another that is hard to control the firing.

Solar Storm - Another elongated blast shooter with slow action. Can be fairly annoying.

Street Racer/Speedway II - Basically a vertical version of Grand Prix, but nowhere as good. 2-player mode can be fun though.

Canyon Bomber - Though I do think the canyon bombing play option of this game is rather boring, as others pointed out (and they are right), the sea bombing game is a pretty fun 2-player.  (thanks guys! )


Stinkers:

Encounter at L5 - A shooter where you control the arch of the shots, but can't move the vessel.......hmm.

Bugs - Want to have more fun killing bugs? Miyagi say, "Try catching them with chopsticks."

Warplock - A super frigidity shooter, pretty bad.

Star Wars: Jedi Arena - You will hate this even if you are a Star Wars fan, horrible controls.

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