This Week in Defunct Games - October 28, 2011

What Is It? BurgerTime tells the story of Peter Pepper, a hard working small business owner, who is getting bullied by his next door neighbor. It seems that the local doughnut shop has decided to attack Peter's burger joint by sending foul tasting pickles, eggs and hot dogs. Even though these two eateries share very little in common, apparently one has to go down. If Nuten Doughnut wasn't such a bastard he could see that working together is the right path to take. Can't we all just get along?

That's the set-up to BurgerTime, the incredibly successful early arcade game from Data East. BurgerTime mixes the Pac-Man style maze game with an objective, to walk across giant burger buns and patties to move them down the screen and ultimately build the perfect sandwich. As you progress through the game you'll find new level layouts and more aggressive bad guys. Now you can take the fun of the arcade game with you wherever you go.

Does It Still Hold Up? This version of BurgerTime zips right along, which makes for some action-packed fun. Unfortunately the Game Boy hardware lets the design down, adding flickers and other problems. And while it may sound like a strange complaint, the lack of color makes these burgers look disgusting. Not that it affects gameplay, but it's awfully hard to tell the difference between the meat patty and tomatoes.

Is It Worth The Money? BurgerTime Deluxe is a fine game at a good price. It's not one of the Game Boy's best arcade conversions, but won't let you down for three bucks. At the same time, this is the sort of release I would expect years after the 3DS Virtual Console launch, not months into the download service. With so many better games to port, it's hard to get excited about this slight Game Boy release.