Release Date: 1981
Developer: Activision
Publisher: Activision
Back in the second generation of console gaming, arcade gameplay was the norm. There were very few games that actually had an ending; Atari’s Adventure for the Atari VCS/2600 comes to mind, as it is the first game that I recall actually having an ending. For games back then, the goal was to get the high score and nothing more.
Activision’s Kaboom!, released for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari’s line of 8-bit home computers, was no exception. Designed by Larry Kaplan, one of the co-founders of Activision, Kaboom! was a game with a very simple goal: score as many points as you can before you lose all your “lives.” It seems simple enough, but Kaboom! contains some of the most addicting gameplay I have ever experienced on the 2600.
In Kaboom!, you control a set of three buckets on the bottom of the screen using the 2600’s paddle controller. On the top of the screen, the “Mad Bomber” drops bombs that you have to catch with the buckets. You score points each time you successfully catch a bomb with the buckets. If a bomb hits the floor, you lose a bucket. Lose all three buckets and the game is over.
The game’s difficulty ramps up with each level. The game has eight levels of speed. After you collect all the bombs in a level and move on to the next, the bomber’s patterns get more erratic and the bombs he drops travel faster. By the time you get to the eighth speed level, the games moves at a manic speed. You barely have enough time to blink as you attempt to catch all the bombs. The game does give you a little help, though. Every time you reach 1,000 points, you are awarded an extra bucket up to the maximum three. It will not help you if you already have the maximum, but it’s a relief if you lost one prior to reaching the 1,000 mark.
Since the 2600 wasn’t a graphical powerhouse, the game’s visual presentation isn’t spectacular. However, the Mad Bomber does have a little personality to him. As he’s dropping bombs, he has a mad look on his face. If a bomb manages to touch the floor, he smiles as all the bombs in the air explode. If you reach 10,000 points, the Mad Bomber’s face changes from one of anger to one of surprise and stays that way for the remainder of the session.
It’s hard to describe the rush you get while playing this game, even today. When you reach the higher speed levels, you’re almost completely zoned out, focusing entirely on your buckets and trying to sync your buckets’ movements to the bomb patterns. Once you lose all your buckets, you get a “just one more try” urge that can stretch a quick play into an hour- long marathon.
Unfortunately, there is nothing more to the game; all you do is catch bombs with buckets. It is a pure arcade-style game. Anyone looking for deep, rewarding gameplay will find none of that here.
Does the game still hold up today? Yes, provided you understand this is a game meant for quick twitch play, not deep gameplay. If you want to play this game today and don’t own any of the systems it was released for, the game is bundled with Activision Anthology, a compilation of Activision games for the Playstation 2 home console; Game Boy Advance and PSP portable consoles; Microsoft Windows and Mac OS home operating systems; and iOS and Android mobile operating systems. If you like arcade-style twitch gameplay – as I do – then Kaboom! is definitely a game you should check out.
Good: Exciting, addicting twitch gameplay; easy to pick up and play in short bursts.
Bad: No depth.
Final score: 8/10
