#0034 Joust

Alright! Remember when I said Nintendo were the only ones who knew how to do pixel art? Well I lied apparently as Williams just surpassed Nintendo for “Best looking game of all time” I mean, seriously, look at that color scheme! I swear that color pallet looks better than 8 bit. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Today on 1K1VGYMPBYD we look at Joust a 1982 Platforming Game Developed by Williams Electronics. The same people who did Defender and Stargate.

This game is… Different. I mean, if I were to list all the space themed games, and then all the SMUP games, it would be 90% of the list, easy. There’s no denying that people are following trends and just making well-crafted clones of each other just to get by (Nintendo aside of course). This game, on the other hand, is neither a space theme, it’s a fantasy theme, nor a shooter, it’s a platformer, a very different platformer at that. Where most companies were trying to copy Nintendo’s Donkey Kong for their platforming experience, game designer John Newcomer decided to create a platformer that nobody had ever seen the likes of before. He wanted a flying game, that wasn’t a space theme. He decided on birds, because birds are cool. They eat bread crumbs. And crap on people. Funny Stuff. He also wanted a platforming experience that could be played co-op, and so he decided on jousting, where you play as flying ostriches, and impale enemies on a lance. The result was the hit arcade classic, Joust.

You play as a knight riding an ostrich, or stork, and your goal is to kill all the other knights on the screen, you basically run into eachother, and the person who is the highest, wins, if you’re both the same height, then you’ll just bounce off eachother. Once you knock a knight off his buzzard, he’ll turn into an egg and will hatch into a more powerful knight if you don’t collect it. You also have to watch out for the Lava Beast, that’ll hold you in position, and pterodactyls that are nearly invincible. When you kill all the other knights on the screen, you move on to the next one.

I gotta say guys, this is a fun game. It’s basically balloon fighter with a fantasy theme. I really liked it. It’s different from anything that’s come before it and honestly, that’s beyond refreshing after so many SHMUPS, you kind of start to get sick of them. The physics are good, the flying mechanic works surprisingly well, it’s really fun killing things, the graphics are superb and the artwork is very creative. Overall, it’s just a good game. Honestly?  I highly recommend it, and I think we have an early runner for game of the year 1982.

Next Up: Polybius (Yeah, I know the game’s from 1981, I somehow skipped over it between Galaga and Donkey Kong, I guess I was just too excited to finally do a Nintendo Review. Either way, I need to do all 1001 games, so I gotta go back and take this one out real quick.)