Dark Cavern

I was expecting to be disinterested, but Dark Cavern kept me engaged. It's fun!I

First, I need to mention that Dark Cavern is a port of sorts. Those familiar with the Intellivision already know Night Stalker, the original game. I'll just say that Night Stalker has better graphics, a different maze layout, a spiderweb in the corner, and a much cooler name. Despite lacking these benefits, Dark Cavern maintains the casual strategy and thrill of the original.

Dark Cavern appears to be a generic maze game. Even the gray and blue color scheme is uninspiring. But don't let appearences get in the way.

The enemies sneak out of side ports, and they provide decent variety. The blobs are well animated, and if they squiggle over you, they'll eat your ammo (just like Link's shield?). The spiders' poison freezes you for a few seconds, which can equal death if a robot is nearby.

As for the robots, it's fun to chase down a one-headed robot and blast it from behind. The robots change color depending on how many you've hit on the screen before another appears, granting more points for different colors. Once you've knocked out enough baddies, two-headed robots appear, which look pretty much like the one-headed robots, but you can't sneak up on these bad boys.

The best strategy for two-headed robots is to lure them to a hallway. As soon as they enter, shoot and exit the hall before they shoot you. It feels very rewarding, I promise. In the meantime, you've got to run and collect the blinking guns when they appear, to refill your ammo. When you lose a life, you respawn in a kind of cage, and can safely hang out in there until the coast is clear. If you're near an enemy respawn port, you can blast several in a row as they appear, but watch out for robots. They fire first and ask questions later.

I love that the running man character looks like the running Intellivision character. Because he is!

Overall, Dark Cavern has enough variety and strategy to keep me engaged for several sessions. I was delighted to find the game more fun than I remembered. I never really gave it a chance. Dark Cavern could get dull upon many replays, but it's a fun game to pop in for ten minutes every now and then. And really, does an Atari game need to be more than that?

Final Dark Cavern review:

Fans may prefer the proper Intellivision title, but Dark Cavern proves to be classic Atari fun, if only in short sessions. I recommend Dark Cavern to the Atari Curious, Nerds, and Collectors.