He-Man for Atari 2600 is visually impressive, just like the real He-Man. The title screen features a rad transformation animation and the Masters theme song.
But the game is not so cohesive. I thought my cartridge was broken when I couldn't get the game to start. Turns out the difficulty switches should be set in the difficult positions, which is actually easy here, because anything difficult for hu-mans is easy for He-Man. Right? I don't know. The point is that you can pause with the right switch, so my game was paused, not busted.
This backwards-and-pause confusion could be forgiven if the game were worth the trouble. In the first sequence, you fly He-Man's speeder thingy over thirty miles to Castle Grayskull. During this flight, evil warriors on the ground throw boomerangs and shoot lasers. (To Masters fans, I apologize for using terms like "speeder" and "boomerang" instead of "wind raider" and "warp trakker." This is all so confusing for me, I have to keep it simple.)
The flying physics are rocky and wavy and yucky. It's like you're moving items around you instead of moving yourself. Once I realized this, I was able to position boomerangs in front of me fairly easily, in order to shoot them down. The best advantage, however, is to time the bomb drops to the moment just before a warrior appears. Then you can swipe them into the hole before they shoot a boomerang. Because if they do that, you can't drop any bombs until that damn "warp trakker" is taken down. Got it?
Travel the tedious 30 miles (in either direction!) and you'll reach Castle Grayskull. Though I couldn't expect the castle to be some massive and detailed fortress, I did expect more than the puny wall of toy blocks we get, perhaps because the title screen led to higher expectations. (I didn't get a pic of the castle; I should have used the switch and paused the game!)
Either way, at the castle a second screen begins, featuring Skeletor himself!
I've heard this screen referred to as a "Swordquest minigame" by more than one person, and I pretty much agree. Fortunately, I find this screen less frustrating than those unrelenting Swordquest games. All you need to do is stroll through the openings in Skeletor's psychedelic wall curtains. You move slow, though, and the walls don't. Getting hit sends you back to the beginning of the screen, and I'm thankful it only costs you points. You can gain more points by absorbing Skeletor's shots with your shield. I think the programmer was kind enough to go easy on us here. Especially with Skeletor, and some would say too easy here. All you have to do is touch Skeletor and you win. Behold the Power of He-Man!
I'm going to call this screen an ending, even though it's really a winning cutscene between levels. Since I have no desire to play the sequences ever again, this awesome screen counts as an ending for me. And it is awesome! Too bad the game couldn't keep up with He-Man's power.
I've heard the Intellivision version of this game is actually pretty decent, so I may check that out someday.
If you're a He-Man fan, you may enjoy this game. Otherwise, and despite the fact that He-Man is generally good-looking (in every way, of course), I recommend this game for collectors only.
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