Freeway
Atari 2600
Nostalgia Factor:
Being a child of the eighties, I have many great memories of the Atari 2600. A game that always stood out to me when I was a kid was Freeway. My grandparents had a 2600 at their house, and often the easiest way to keep me entertained was to plop me in front of the TV and have me play some games. I remember they had Joust, Dig-Dug, Ghostbusters, E.T., Mario Bros., Vanguard, Keystone Kapers, Yar's Revenge, Warlords, and many other games. But one that I played the most was Freeway. Of all the games they had, it was the simplest in concept. But I always found myself coming back to it time and time again over the years.
I don't know when it was that my grandparents packed up the Atari 2600 once and for all, but eventually they did. Poof. Just like that Freeway was gone from my life. Let's say they packed it up in 1993, which is probably a very generous estimate. That means that at the very least, 30 years have passed since I've played this game.
I had almost completely forgotten about this game until the other night, when I found myself scrolling through a list of old games on my RetroPie. My eyes lingered on Freeway. As soon as I realized what this game was, fond memories of it started to fill my mind. I knew right then and there that I had to play this game. And play it I did.
How does it stack up in the year 2023? That is what we are here to find out.
Story:
This game doesn't have a story. You are a chicken trying to cross the road without being hit by a car. That is literally all you need to know about this game.
Gameplay:
This is an extremely simple game as you can only do two things: you can move up or you can move down. The goal is to make it across the street (going up) without getting hit by a car. If you get hit, you go back to the beginning of the stage (all the way down to the bottom). Once you successfully cross the street, your score goes up by one point and you are transported back down to the bottom of the screen. Guess what? You have to cross the street again. The whole purpose of the game is to cross the street as many times as you can within the allotted time limit. The player with the highest score wins.
I don't remember this from when I was a kid, but apparently this is a two-player only game. There is no option to play single player. If you do only have one player, the second player just sits there at the bottom of their side of the screen and never moves. I can see this game being fun with two people trying to race across the street faster and earn the higher score. With one player, the game is extremely limited.
The first time I tried the game, I scored 17 points. My opponent obviously score 0 because I wasn't playing with a second person. My next game I scored 21. My final game: 28. And that was it. I was done with the game. Nothing more to see or do here. Just a very basic, very repetitive game.
I'd say I played it about ten minutes, if that. There is just really not a whole lot to see here. When I was a kid, I could play this for hours on end. As an adult... not so much. Just look at the GIF below. That's it. That's the entire game. Looks fun, huh?
Graphics:
This isn't really a game you play for its graphics. It looks like something a kindergartener could have drawn up on a piece of construction paper. You can tell the chicken is a chicken. You can tell the cars are cars. You can tell the road is a road. I guess that's all you really need, huh?
Sound:
I'm sorry, there just isn't much to say here. There's no music, only sound effects. The entire game consists of the buzzing sound of traffic, with an occasional beep of a car horn thrown in for good measure. It is about as basic sounding of a game as you can get.
Overall:
I suppose this was a good game to visit, just for old time's sake. But let's be real. This game is basic AF. Basic concept, basic controls, basic sound effects, basic graphics. You can see and experience everything this game has to offer in about ten minutes. I'm not being a hater. There is just nothing here to keep you engaged. Maybe, and I mean maybe playing with a second person makes you get more than ten minutes out of this. Maybe even twenty or thirty!
I suppose I'll pop this in and play it with my son someday. I can't imagine this game will turn into a favorite of ours. We'll probably one play it one time and that will be it. And I imagine that will be the experience of a lot of people checking this game out in present times. This might have been a great game back in like 1985, but that was a long time ago. Games this basic and this devoid of replay ability just don't cut it anymore.
THE GRADE:
D
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