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......Revenge Of The Gator..
1989/HAL
Game Boy
Review by Polas - 10/8/01
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I'm not sure why I love this game so much, but for some reason, it falls into Karnov territory as far as games that totally rule are concerned. Perhaps it was because it was one of my first Game Boy games, and I took it with me wherever I went. It could be because of the most excellent jazzy tunes that accompany the action. Maybe it was just long-lasting straight up pinball action, with lots of cool bonuses and side goals. Now let's stop kidding ourselves. You and I both know damn well it's the dancing alligators:
Gets me every time. And you're hooked now too, aren't you? Like you'd have stopped reading anyway.
What we have here is a multi-tier pinball game, and that means, you guessed it, a large and confusing diagram that'll show you the ropes:
After your ball is launched, you'll end up in the central chamber. From there, you can afford to fall one level, or try to make your way back up. That little gator slot machine in the center/right area gives you a chance to match 3 like symbols and obtain one of three results:
3 STARS: Progressively multiplies Bonus Points.
3 FISH: Enables what will now be referred to as the "Fish Barrier". An odd head and two tadpole things remain in play between the flippers and in the side chutes for a limited time, or until you hit the tadpoles.
3 SQUASHES WITH LITTLE "Z"s NEXT TO THEM: Not even I could make this stuff up. Getting three Z Squashes is very bad indeed, as you'll lose any bonuses the previous two symbols gave you since your current turn started. Also, an emotionally disheartening buzzer will sound. Shame on you.
That's the slot machine. Another way to get the Fish Barrier is to light up all 4 hearts dead center at the top of the screen, and that's about all there is to this chamber. You have two ways to go now, but let's assume you suck, and fell down to the next room.
Besides the four wallgators and the threat of becoming a giant alligators lunch by falling into the basement, the main attraction of this room is the three gaping amphibious heads. The right one will teleport your ball back to the launching spring, and lefty takes you back to the level above; your ball shoots out of thr big gator's mouth. The middle one, however, takes you to Bonus Stage 1. The Bonus Stages can earn you tens of thousands of points, and in this one, all you have to do is bust up a bunch of bricks that a big gator is walking across. Then, nail the gator. YOU WIN! The best part about these bonus rounds is that you can keep doing them till you lose a ball.
Come with me, if you will (oh, you will) to the central chamber. See that little door on the left? Nail all 3 pegs to open it and shoot up to the next room. You also enter this room when you lose during Bonus Stage 1. Now comes the tediousness, though it will keep you occupied. You can elect to go either right or left, or give up and go down, which I don't advise. After you clear all the blocks and pegs on one side, you can take that path. Going right? Not yet. Because the left hole takes you to Bonus Stage 2. Here, your job is to bust open the 5 eggs, then blast the flying dragon-gator things that pop out. This one can be the hardest, because those damn eggs send the ball bouncing every which way but the way you want. That sounds like I song; I should be writing this stuff down. Wait .... I amwriting this stuff down...
OK, back to the damned block room. This time, we'll go right, and into the highest room of them all. Hitting those three spikes gets the Fish Barrier, but there are far more important things to do here. First of all, simply getting into that little vortex on the right takes you to Bonus Stage 3, where you play sort of a whack-a-mole game, only of course, with gators. But there's more to do on the top level; oh yes. See them little fishies around the loops? Keep knocking them at that tiny gator in between, and watch him pull a Sally Struthers before your very eyes:
As he starts crawling toward you after the final feeding, slam into him, and an extra ball is yours. Since the point system in this game is pretty conservative compared to most, and that's the only way to get an extra ball, you'd be well served to do so.
As I've already made perfectly clear, I'm not really too sure on why this game kicks so much ass. But HAL knew what they were doing when they took a fairly average pinball game, jazzed it up with some sweet music, and gave it a nonsensical jubilant alligator motif. Who are these gators? Why do they want revenge? Who cares? You're damn right "who cares", because this game doesn't have to explain anything to your sorry ass. All hail the Gator!
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