Git along little dogiesIn 1981 Activision released Stampede for the A2600. They were a fairly new company and this was one of their first releases. In 1982 they would let loose Pifall Harry on the gaming world and that game was quite an achievement. Nonetheless, Stampede is a great game in it's own right, even if not nearly as complex. Gamers were looking for something different than shoot-em-ups all the time and companies were out to deliver. So we got Stampede. It's gameplay is simple and addictive. Dogies are on the loose and it's your job to use your skills with a lasso on horseback to round them all up.
GRAPHICS it seems should be at a high 7. All of the gameplay elements are if not beautiful, easily recognizable at least. They move. Their legs do anyways as they run. Your lasso has a loop at the end of it. The background is pretty bland but it usually was in these earlier Atari games. The colors are right for a western setting though.
SOUND in Stampede is restricted to something that resembles a horse running in the background accompanied by a few simple sound effects. When you rope a dogie you hear a sound similar to an old-fashioned ring tone, and when you hit an obstacle you are rewarded with an extremely unpleasant buzzer. That only earns a 5 for being just adequate.
ADDICTIVENESS is the success story of Stampede, for which I rate it a 9. Despite receiving criticism even at the time of it's release of it's simplicity it still has a ton of replay value. If you're the type of gamer to turn a game on, try it once, and decide that you don't like it, stay away. But if you play it a few times to get the gist of how the game flows you may find yourself trying to beat your personal best soon enough,
STORY we'll put at 6. There is one. Sort of. You are a cowboy. The calves are loose and you have to round them up and lasso them.
DEPTH is kind of hard to gauge for this title. I suppose I'll give it an honorable 6. On one hand, you just move up and down avoiding skulls and roping calves. On the other though, there's a bit of strategy involved in the process. There are 4 different types of cows that all move at different speeds as they approach you from right to left. The brown cows are actually moving the fastest relative to your cowboy so you have the most time to lasso them. The tan and white cows are next. Then the big black angus just sits there so have have to rope him quickly. If a group of cows gets too close to passing you, you can nudge them forward to gain another chance to lasso them. In this way an expert player can continually nudge groups of brown calves forward to allow only one open lane for other cows to pass. If you run into a cowskull on the ground or into the black angus before you nab him you get tripped up and lose control for a second. You gain a bonus cow for every thousand points earned but let too many pass and it's game over.
DIFFICULTY for Stampede should be about a 7. The first few times you play you may lose right away. At least I did. But after a while you develop a strategy and can last longer and longer. In that respect, it works well since you generally can feel yourself improving after you make a mistake or 2. Or 3. Keeps you entertained enough to keep trying again.
OVERALL I give Stampede an 8. It really is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. My friends and I would sit there cross-legged in front of the TV passing the controller back and forth trying to beat each others scores. Those days may be gone, but Stampede! lives on. Thanks for reading.
Graphics
7 Sound
5 Addictive
9 Depth
6 Story
6 Difficulty
7
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