Developer: James Wickstead Design Associates
Publisher: U.S. Games
Release Date: January 1983
Unique Feature: insta-grow carrots!
It’s not easy being Johnny Three-Carrots. This poor farmer should have it all. He only needs to plant three carrots at a time because he has a magical duck that delivers insta-grow carrot seeds free of charge. These carrots spring up practically instantaneously meaning that he doesn’t have to waste all that space actually growing things. He just has to stand in a small section of land, catch seeds, and instantly reap his three carrot harvest. Unfortunately before he can even put down his shovel the evil gopher rears his ugly head. Johnny Three-Carrots gives him a look that says “not today Gopher, not today.” The war of the carrots has begun.
Okay so things are getting a bit silly now, but what is there to say about a game starring a farmer who fills in gopher holes? It’s not very good for essay writing, but it is pretty fun. Gopher is gloriously simple. A gopher digs holes on the bottom of the screen. When these holes reach the surface you can use your shovel to fill them in. If the gopher manages to get out of the hole you can hit him along the way or else he takes one of your carrots away. A duck will deliver seeds which give you an extra carrot if you manage to catch the seed and plant it. When you run out of carrots its game over. That is seriously the whole game, and I applaud the developers for managing to take such a simple premise and turn it into a fun game.
This is one of the games I played at my grandma’s house when I was a little kid so I might be a little biased, but Gopher really is a surprisingly fun game. It plays at a frantic pace almost from the beginning and is too quick to ever get boring. I love the edition of the extra carrot seeds because it adds a much needed precision element to the game. Filling in holes is super simple, but catching seeds takes perfect timing. Also the ravenous gopher is a worthy opponent so you need the extra carrots. The developers could’ve just given out extra carrots with points like most games and made the game start out easy and boring, but because of the seed system they can start the game already in frantic progress.
I am honestly surprised to be giving this game such a good review. It’s so simple and silly looking that it’s easy to overlook the solid gameplay. Its simplicity is going to keep it from getting too high on the list, but it does land in the good section right below the more complex Super Soccer. I love that Gopher puts the 2600 quality percentage back to 50%. It’s just the kind of console that gets rescued by silly little gopher games. It’s even a fun game to make up silly backstories for. Every Atari game should be that way.
Atari 2600 quality percentage: 4/8 or 50%
1. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
2. Super Mario Odyssey
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Galaga
5. Donkey Kong
6. Exodus: Ultima III
7. Pac-Mania
8. Wrecking Crew
9. Super Pac-Man
10. Pac-Man
11. Viva Pinata
12. Dragon View
13. Excitebike
14. Drakkhen
15. Todd’s Adventures in Slime World
16. Arc the Lad
17. Clu Clu Land
18. Tails’ Adventures
19. Scrapyard Dog (Lynx)
20. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX
21. Mickey’s Racing Adventure
22. Metro-Cross
23. Double Dragon
24. Panic Restaurant
25. Felix the Cat
26. Adventure
27. Ice Climber
28. Gaplus
29. Dragon Spirit
30. Pinball (NES)
31. Ninja Golf
32. Fast Eddie
33. Super Soccer
34. Gopher
35. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)
36. Red Sea Crossing
37. Baraduke
38. Demon’s Crest
39. Evoland
40. Tennis
41. Renegade
42. Beethoven
43. Hogan’s Alley
44. Gamma-Attack
45. The Legend of “Valkyrie”
46. Galaxian
47. Dragon Crystal
48. Cosmic Commuter
49. Hot Pixel
50. PocketBike Racer
51. Wild Gunman
52. Defunct
53. Gyruss (2600)
54. Looney Tunes Racing
55. Squidlit
56. Gordo 106
57. Baseball
58. Home Alone
59. Birthday Mania
60. Bad Street Brawler
61. Burly Men at Sea
62. Wayne’s World
63. WeakWood Throne
64. X-Men (HyperScan)
65. My Name is Mayo
66. Marvel Heroes
67. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends
68. Ben 10
(Images are from mobygames.com)
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