Review: BurgerTime Deluxe - Plus Video
by Staff Writer
September 24, 2009
Overview
Many people know of the classic Data East game BurgerTime. Well Namco has decided to reinvent the title, and release it for PC/Mac and the iPhone, branding it as BurgerTime Deluxe. Like the original there are platforms layered with burger ingredients, and you walk over the ingredients to make them drop down to assemble burgers. The ingredients are placed on levels with the top bun on top, and as you walk over it, it knocks down the lettuce, into the burger, etc. As you’re moving around there are eggs, pickles, and hot dogs out to get you. You have pepper at your disposal to stun your enemies.
You play as Peter Pepper, and you have to help your uncle save his restaurant from Vinnie Vinegar. The arcade classic isn’t included, only the new deluxe version with an actual story mode, and brand new looks.
Features
The main feature is the story mode building upon the typical progressing difficulty levels of the arcade game. You progress across town to different eating establishments. There are 60 levels to play across, and there is an actual conclusion to the game. There are also some mini games once you have completed the entire story mode. What makes this game Deluxe are the brand new animations and sound effects, as well as the detailed story mode. Not too many features are included though.
The Good
The game looks great, and is just amazing how far graphics have come. All of the ladders and platforms are uniquely designed depending on the area you’re in. There are also varying backgrounds behind the gameplay area, depending on what restaurant you’re currently near, whether it's fish, chicken, etc. Peter Pepper and the pickles, hot dogs, and eggs are all nicely animated, and really look 3D in 2D space. The animations are nicely done shown by the indentation on the burger ingredients on the part you’ve walked over. Also shown when you toss pepper in the enemies eyes, they jump up and down while rubbing their eyes. Then there is their spin and fall to the ground when a burger ingredient falls on top of them.
There are a few songs playing in the background that are reminiscent of an old time diner infused with a little big band. The sound effects are appropriate from walking across burger parts, to tossing pepper, or crushing enemies.
The save system is absolutely impeccable. The game picks up at the exact point you left off, even walking across the middle of a burger. Not only that, but when you lose all of your lives, you can continue the story mode, just resetting your score. It’s so much better than playing the same opening levels over and over.
The Bad
The controls are terrible, utterly and completely terrible. You can’t enjoy the game because the controls get in the way. You never actually feel like you’re in control. You will figure the controls out, but they will always be a hassle.
As you play the controls begin in the lower left, but if you don’t move for a couple seconds they disappear. When you tap again the controls re-center wherever you tap. So if you tap to move right based on where the original controls were, your player doesn’t move at all, the controls just move to a new position, and then you have to tap right from there.
Also the controls can be moved to hover anywhere, even right in the center of the screen obscuring the action. Right and left movement doesn’t work very well even when the controls are on screen. When you’re near a ladder, and you try to press left/right Peter Pepper moves down or up more often than not. You lose most of your lives by not being able to control properly.
Another problem is that the game is too easy if you actually figure out the controls. If you’ve ever played the original, you’ll know what I mean. It’s too easy to rack up peppers, and with tons of peppers, you can line up all the enemies on a bun, and it will knock all of the ingredients down with their added weight.
Whenever you’re in a sticky situation just use pepper since you don’t have to conserve it like in the original. As you progress there are tons of items to pick up that gives you 10 more peppers. There are also a ton of lives included if the peppers weren't enough.
The Classic BurgerTime arcade game isn’t included. This is probably the worst aspect that the timeless game isn’t ported to the iPhone.
The game does have a story mode, but it’s still mainly score based. Despite being score based there are no online high scores, or achievements or anything relating to the score except for local scores.
