Retrospective: Kabobber for the Atari 2600 (Part 1)

Remember way back when you first played Kabobber for the Atari 2600? Well, if you do, then you were either very lucky or you should probably see a psychiatrist. This game was never released!

Kabobber's lack of release was one of gaming's great missteps. It's a shining gem that I was happy to find for myself after its fortunate unearthing. Programmed by Rex Bradford of Activision for the VCS, Kabobber never saw release in true VCS cartridge form until 2000 when the prototype was found and released soon after. The game then saw an actual retail release in the multiplatform Activision Anthology.

Kabobber is one of those quirky little games that stands out from the rest in a good way. If not for its rather anticlimactic release, I imagine it could have been a big hit. Having no original release, the game doesn't even have an official backstory. AtariAge.com held a manual-writing contest for Kabobber but, in my humble opinion, until Rex Bradford blesses it's storyline himself then neither shall I. (There are links below containing the winning manual and story if you're interested.) Luckily, the game does just fine without a proper storyline!

Gameplay is centered around controlling a group of 1 to 9 creatures hopping in unison. They hop in realtime as opposed to turn-based. Hopping on enemies first enables you to add baby creatures to a waiting queue which you can then add to your group at any time with the action button. Baby creatures can only grow to full size by hopping on the green enemies. Anything else will kill them. Alternatively, being hopped on by enemies causes you to lose that specific creature. There are various enemy types including an indestructible boot! The ultimate goal each level is to catch up with the pink creature before it reaches the rainbow finish line at the end.

Kabobber is an addictive little action strategy game that is vaguely similar to the much more current Katamari Damacy series in both oddity and gameplay. I highly suggest you give Kabobber a try as it may very well take a place in your list of favorite VCS games!

For more information, see AtariAge or AtariProtos

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