Burger Time (NES Game)

Burger Time is one of the all-time greatest single scree platformers. You are Peter Pepper, a short order cook who needs to make a bunch of burgers. Sounds simple enough. It would be simple if it weren't for the mortal enemies of short order cooks: hot dogs, fried eggs, and pickles. These enemies will chase you all over the screen in an attempt to thwart your burger making ways. Your only defenses are your street smarts and the few pepper shakers you have with you. Pepper is like a taser to eggs, hot dogs, and pickles. It will knock them out for a while and you can go about your burger making ways. Here's a handy tip, if you send an enemy down with a burger piece you're dropping, it will drop faster and farther.

The paragraph above describes Burger Time in general. I own the game on several systems. The NES version does have a few drawbacks. First of all, the ladders are poorly animated. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a ladder goes all the way up because it looks like it has a split in the middle. Also, the enemies don't get progressively harder. You just play through the levels and when they start repeating, your enemies will suddenly be super fast. It seems a bit unfair. One last thing: the death jingle. When you die, the music makes it sound like you accomplished something. It's a little fanfare. It's just not appropriate death music. Oh, and sometimes it's hard to tell if you've reached a platform yet. You'll find yourself over the platform or under it on the ladder and pressing over won't do anything even though it looks like you're right on the platform. These are nit-picky things, but since I own and have played several versions of this game, I have to pick some nits.

With all my gripes, I still really enjoy this game. It's the same classic platforming action that turned the arcade game into a franchise ported on multiple systems. Warts and all, this is still a very enjoyable game and one of my personal favorites. I'm giving it a solid...