M Network Burger Time -Atari 2600
Retro Gaming Review

Rating:

I rarely played Burger Time in the arcades, but loved it when released on later platforms. It has a similar zany food premise as Food Fight on the Atari 7800, but this time around you are Chef Peter Pepper and attempting to assemble hamburgers while dodging and peppering the bad guys. Crazy stuff!

Although regarded as a classic arcade game, that same memorable fun is somewhat lost on the Atari 2600's abysmal graphics. The gaming elements and sounds are quite authentic to the arcade version, but it's hard to get past the low-budget graphics. As you can see in our screen shot, some of the flicker causes some characters to become plain rectangles. Arg!

Burger Time Story Arc

OK, there's not much of a story here, but Chef Pepper is on a burger-making mission despite the deadly condiments that roam his peculiar kitchen.

Burger time lets you build beautiful burgers by dropping buns and patties onto a plate. Dodge horrible hot dog. Defy brawling bread sticks. Pepper enormous eggs and charging cheese. Score points by squashing those nasties with a falling bun. Build all the burgers and you move on to the next maze. Get too close to a nasty, though, and it's back to Burger School for you in short order.

The joystick moves your chef and the fire button is referred to as the Pepper button as it allows you to dose a renegade condiment with pepper. Walking across each ingredient makes it drop down a level until a finished hamburger rests at the bottom of the screen. Hot dogs, eggs, breadsticks, and cheese chase after your chef. If they catch him, the round is over. There are 5 mazes that repeat after completing the 5th one.

I'm surprised the graphics aren't better. The Burger Time arcade controls are identical and shouldn't require any extra overhead on the 2600. just a joystick and a pepper button.

Difficulty Switch Settings for Burger Time

M Network released their games on unique style cartridges that looked different from the conventional boxy-shape. In line with this is their decision to use the right and left Difficulty Switches for game options typically selected via the Game Select Switch. Hence, the Difficulty Switches have o effect on the game's challenge to either player.

Since the game options are derived from both sets of Difficulty Switches, the 2-player games make both players use the left-side controller - it has to be shared at the end of each players turn.

The right-side Difficulty switch determines the number of players. "A' is for 2 players and "B" is for 1 player. On the other side... The left-side Difficulty Switch is actually a Pause button. The "A" position pauses the game and the "B" position resumes the burger assembly action.

If your culinary skills are good enough you can amass 999,950 points - which is the maximum score. Don't waste your pepper - save it for the nasty condiments that you can't easily evade.

While the 2600 version of Burger Time is weak on the graphics side, its still a fun game, but far more enjoyable on more modern systems that preserve the original arcade version's integrity. Look for it on Data East Arcade Classics for Wii.

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