
	Platform Colecovision Genre Cooking Made by Data East USA, Inc. Year released 1982
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Burgertime

Burgertime must have been borne of a chef’s darkest nightmare. You take on the role of a portly chef that is pursued by a fried egg and couple of sausages as he attempts to make burgers. These burgers aren’t regular size. They remind one of the classic Sesame Street skit in which Grover serves up a burger thesize of a cow. Making the burgers entails climbing ladders and running across platforms. The burger contents are located across many levels, one on top of the other. The platter to catch all the fixings is located at the bottom of the screen. It’s the chef’s job to get all the burger contents into the platter. This is accomplished by walking over an item. Once an item has been walked over it falls to a lower level, squashing any enemies in the process. If you start at the top, you walk over the top of the hamburger bun, sending it to a lower level, which starts a chain reaction, knocking lower items down until the item on the floor is pushed through to the platter. Repeat until all the burgers are made.

burgertime,colecovision

It sounds simple enough, right?

Advertisement

Getting passed level three is an accomplishment. The chefs waddles, making him an easy target for the very smart enemy AI. The enemies home in on you, knowing precisely which ladders to climb to cut you off. If you blink, you’re likely to die. Nothing gives more satisfaction than watching them get smacked by a falling patty. The control isn’t great and since the only weapon at your disposal is a small salt cloud (which doesn’t kill the enemy, only stuns them) you’ll die some more. A deadly ketchup blast would have been appreciated.

Advertisement

The graphics are good enough that you’ll be able to tell which enemy is a sausage. The level design is straightforward – you always know what your goal is. Finishing levels is no easy task. Level one had me sweating – and not because I have nightmares about giant fried eggs. The sound is what you’d expect from the Colecovision.

This is a hard game, up there next to Miner 2049, but because of the strange premise is actually more fun to play.

- Omni