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So it's probably important that I go ahead and give my impressions of "I Was An Atomic Mutant!" before the thought is blasted out of my head and is never seen again, except on late-night television. Those who could care less may skip this entry entirely.
One thing's pretty clear... This game knows exactly what it's going for. Everything from the menus to the in-game movies (one at the start, possibly one at the end) to the game itself is soaking with 1950s and 60s b-movie nostalgia. You've got your giant lizard with nuclear flame breath, your giant brain with psionic powers of DOOM, your 50-foot atomic human (a giant woman in this case, and yes, her clothing grew too) and your giant Martian war robot with Slinkie-arms.
Gameplay's pretty simple. You pick a character and then you go smash the hell out of small towns in the midwest while the Military and SCIENCE combine to try to stop you. And then you step on them, or pick them up and eat them, or use your awesome (eye-lasers/flame breath/atomic plasma bolts/pure mental energy) to fry them.
The menus are written in overblown b-movie style. ("BEHOLD!! the AWESOME HIGH SCORES. FLEE!! to the DESKTOP!! CLICK on VARIOUS THINGS for NO REASON!!") There's three sound sliders to set: Sound effects, CD Music, and Cows. (You cannot turn off the cows. You can make them very quiet, however. Moo.) Periodicly as your monster gleefully rampages about, you hear the disembodied voices of the townspeople screaming in terror. (My favorites are "According to SCIENCE, this is IMPOSSIBLE!" and "YOU did this! You MEN, and your BOMBS!" Of course, for self-esteem purposes, nothing beats "We're running outta bullets, sir!" from the Army.) There's an option to play in black and white.
This is not a deep game. In fact, you can pretty much win each level with the same plan: Stand out of town, away from the activation points of the tanks and fighters. Shoot long-range attacks into town until stuff blows up. Repeat until town is leveled. Boring.
Yet, I love this game.
If you can take this game on its level, and stomp gleefully into the middle of town trusting your AWESOME ATOMIC MIGHT to protect you from the mere bombs and bullets, if you can grasp the glee inherent in growling and roaring as you chase down fleeing townspeople, scoop one up, and devour him purely for the fun of it, if you take GREAT PRIDE in picking up a parked car and flinging it so it hits a passing jet (which then spirals out of the sky and smashes into the gas station mwaahahaha), if you can picture yourself using the taunt button to pose impressively against the skyline JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN, then you have the right mindset for this game.
It's not about winning. It's about getting there, and who you can squish on the way.
One thing's pretty clear... This game knows exactly what it's going for. Everything from the menus to the in-game movies (one at the start, possibly one at the end) to the game itself is soaking with 1950s and 60s b-movie nostalgia. You've got your giant lizard with nuclear flame breath, your giant brain with psionic powers of DOOM, your 50-foot atomic human (a giant woman in this case, and yes, her clothing grew too) and your giant Martian war robot with Slinkie-arms.
Gameplay's pretty simple. You pick a character and then you go smash the hell out of small towns in the midwest while the Military and SCIENCE combine to try to stop you. And then you step on them, or pick them up and eat them, or use your awesome (eye-lasers/flame breath/atomic plasma bolts/pure mental energy) to fry them.
The menus are written in overblown b-movie style. ("BEHOLD!! the AWESOME HIGH SCORES. FLEE!! to the DESKTOP!! CLICK on VARIOUS THINGS for NO REASON!!") There's three sound sliders to set: Sound effects, CD Music, and Cows. (You cannot turn off the cows. You can make them very quiet, however. Moo.) Periodicly as your monster gleefully rampages about, you hear the disembodied voices of the townspeople screaming in terror. (My favorites are "According to SCIENCE, this is IMPOSSIBLE!" and "YOU did this! You MEN, and your BOMBS!" Of course, for self-esteem purposes, nothing beats "We're running outta bullets, sir!" from the Army.) There's an option to play in black and white.
This is not a deep game. In fact, you can pretty much win each level with the same plan: Stand out of town, away from the activation points of the tanks and fighters. Shoot long-range attacks into town until stuff blows up. Repeat until town is leveled. Boring.
Yet, I love this game.
If you can take this game on its level, and stomp gleefully into the middle of town trusting your AWESOME ATOMIC MIGHT to protect you from the mere bombs and bullets, if you can grasp the glee inherent in growling and roaring as you chase down fleeing townspeople, scoop one up, and devour him purely for the fun of it, if you take GREAT PRIDE in picking up a parked car and flinging it so it hits a passing jet (which then spirals out of the sky and smashes into the gas station mwaahahaha), if you can picture yourself using the taunt button to pose impressively against the skyline JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN, then you have the right mindset for this game.
It's not about winning. It's about getting there, and who you can squish on the way.
