- Release Date: 1988
- Genre: Sports
- Style: Extreme Sports
- Similar Games: 720° (Nintendo Entertainment System), Skate or Die (Nintendo Entertainment System), Skate or Die (Commodore 64/128)
Game Description
Based on the original Commodore 64 title, California Games is a different type of sports game for the Atari 2600. Eschewing traditional sports like baseball or football, this is one of the first games to simulate extreme sports. You can participate by yourself or against up to seven others in four different events: Foot Bag, Half-Pipe, BMX Racing and Surfing.In the Foot Bag event, the object is to keep a hacky sack in the air for 90 seconds using only your feet, knees and head. Points are scored by performing tricks like jumps and kicks. In the Half-Pipe competition, you control a skateboarder with 90 seconds to perform a variety of stunts (such as aerial turns, hand plants and kick turns) without falling off the board.
The BMX Racing event puts you on a lightweight bike racing down a California mountain. You have 30 seconds to complete the course, which is littered with jumps, holes and obstacles. You can also perform stunts for a higher score. Finally, the Surfing event give you the chance to catch a wave and hang ten. The goal here is to ride a wave for as long as possible while performing tricks.
At the end of all four events, the score is totaled and ribbons are awarded to the best players.
~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
When you first turn on California Games, you're greeted by a fabulous title screen featuring intense, color-cycling graphics and danceable music. It's the programmers' way of saying, "We know what we're doing."It's almost always true that the best games are released near the end of a console's life, since it usually takes that long for game designers to learn the system's hidden programming tricks and secrets. With a minuscule 128 bytes of video memory and a 1.19 Mhz processor, the Atari 2600 didn't look like much on paper, but its huge popularity and name recognition meant games were still being developed for it more than ten years after its introduction.
One of those later titles was California Games, which stands as an example of what a difference a decade can make. It's light-years ahead of a first-generation game like Video Olympics. Whereas most Atari 2600 games contain just one basic game and a few variations on that concept, California Games is made up of four separate, distinct events, each with their own rules and objectives.
Each of these events -- foot bag, half-pipe, BMX racing and surfing -- could have been an entire game in their own right, but California Games packages them together in a tournament-style competition for up to eight(!) players.
Of the events, BMX racing and the foot bag are the most fun, but all are much better than what you'd expect to find in your average Atari 2600 game. Each event requires that you learn specific joystick movements and strategies in order to earn the highest score, rather than making you perform repetitive tasks or random button pushing.
California Games' graphics are the best the system can offer, with colorful, easily recognizable characters and environments. The "Hollywood" sign behind the half-pipe and moving clouds in the background of the foot bag event are just two examples of the game's attention to graphic detail.
In the sound department, the game starts off on a good note with the opening music, but the rest of the game is surprisingly music-free, although there are musical cues when you perform stunts and tricks.
California Games, like Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES and Super Mario RPG for the SNES, pushes the capabilities of its hardware into previously unimaginable territory, proving a console is only as good as its best programmers.
~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
Review: Enjoyment
Alone or with up to eight players, California Games is a load of fun.~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
Review: Graphics
The absolute best you'll find on the Atari 2600.~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
Review: Sound
Great opening music, with fine sound effects.~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
Review: Replay Value
With four events and many different stunts to learn, this isn't a game you will tire of quickly.~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
Review: Documentation
Excellent, detailed intruction manual.~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
Production Credits
Designer: Peter Engelbelte; Designer: Steve Baker
~ Skyler Miller, All Game Guide
