MMMC #10 - Snacks'n Jackson

[scooterb23]

I've made it no secret that I love really odd, and obscure, arcade games. This week...we've got one of the oddest, and most obscure games I have ever...EVER played.

First the formalities...



Club Rules

01. You do not need to sign up for the club. If you want to participate, simply download the game of the week and post about it!

02. At the end of the week, I will randomly select a game from a list of nominations.

03. The current MAME Club Pick of the Week can be found every Monday stickied at the top of the Arcade Alley.

I can say little more that this week's game is the bizarre Bally Sente game Snacks'n Jackson After one play, I see it as kind of a reverse 3D breakout game that involves clown noses, extendable necks, and floating breakfast foods. This one is truly out there.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9595



Without further ado: ROM sources!

Flack is hosting at http://www.robohara.com/mameclub/

and 2DSkillz will have the games ROMs at http://www.retrogoggles.com/


Previous MMMC choices: Jump Coaster, Rampart, Jungler, Ninja Emaki, Port Man, Psycho Soldier, Metamoqester, Gunbarich, Sengoku (series)

[Vor][ex]

I actually have snacks n jackson..
Although I will have to play it again to give it a rating.. I will give it the title of " one of the catchiest game names ever " award.

I mean really..... we have the following nominations..
Bubble Bobble
Bad Dudes
Galaga
or
Snacks N Jackson..
Its brilliant !
)

[Flack]

I wrote a review of Snack 'N Jaxson for the food-themed issue of the Digital Press print zine that never made it to press. Here it is, just for you guys.

#####

Snacks 'n Jaxson (Arcade)
Bally Sente 1984

If I were to tell you about an arcade game that involved a disembodied clown’s head bouncing his red nose around while eating pancakes and avoiding hot peppers, you would probably start to wonder just how much LSD I had ingested the day before. But I promise, it’s all true!

In Snacks ‘n Jaxson, you control Jaxson de Box’s head, attached to his body by only a thin string. Jaxson the ever-hungry clown appears sitting at the far end of his dinner table, facing you. The object of the game is to keep Jaxson’s nose bouncing while eating the floating morsels of food that appear before him between bounces. The way the game is drawn, Jaxson’s nose is continually bouncing toward you in 3D – fortunately, its shadow makes it easy to tell where exactly the nose is at all times. After the first bounce, one item breakfast food will appear. The next bounce, two appear. After each bounce you must run Jaxson’s head over all the food items before you hit the ball with your face. Miss your nose and it’ll smash the glass window behind you. Fail to eat all the food items and a small troll dressed in a chef’s outfit will enter the screen and hit you in the face with a pie. I swear I’m not making this up!

Once Jaxson’s finished with breakfast it’s on to lunch, where you’ll be chasing down hamburgers, hotdogs, and Popsicles. In between each meal there are also bonus levels. One involves bouncing your nose at a high rate of speed. Another involves blocking baseballs with your face. The Major League Baseball Association surely cannot endorse this. After working your way through dinner and a midnight snack the whole smorgasbord starts over on day two.

While players control Jaxson’s head with a trackball, there’s a button on the control panel as well – the sneeze button. Occasionally your troll friend will toss a hot pepper or a bar of soap into the mix. By using the sneeze button you can blow these foul-tasting items away from your face.

Snacks ‘n Jaxson is a fairly goofy yet entertaining game. There’s not much depth to it and the game controls a lot better with a trackball than it does with a mouse in MAME, but it’s still a fun title to break out when people start talking about “weird games.”

And now you know what clowns do in their off time.

[Vor][ex]

Vor][ex says :
QUICK SCORES:

PRIME SOBRIETY LEVEL: Less hobo clown, more actual Hobo.

APPROXIMATE COMPLETION TIME: If it's anything like the experience that it simulates, it's the around the same time that you go back to finding Adam Sandler as unfunny as usual.

APPROXIMATE QUARTER OUTPUT: 1 [$.25] (Unless, of course, you have a sneezing fetish, in which case this game will provide you hours of wank material at the push of a button.)

THIS GAME NEEDED: A McDonald's license. Seriously. It had the clown, it had every item that McDonalds offers, and there was a high chance that your food would be sneezed on prior to eating. It was perfect.

FUN FACT: Everything released in 1984 seems more significant on a subconcious level. I can say something like "Man, playing Snacks 'N Jaxson. It's like I'm in 1984" and you'll actually have to stop and think for a second before you realize that it isn't actually poignant.

Ok I didnt write this, its a copied and pasted review.. but man.. I cant come up with better material than this.. its PRICELESS.>!

For the record.. I played it and top scored with 15,250
A fair effort I thought..

Now SDK :

This was an interesting concept. I'm not sure if it totally worked on every level but it was quirky, I'll give it that. Kindof like a one player Pong or Breakout from a different perspective. I found controlling the head a little awkward and disorientating but then again, I didn't have a trackball, so I can't comment on authentic controls. As quirky as it was, it was still somewhat repetitive, as seems to be the nature of true arcade games.
Vor]ex Final Score:
5 1/2Freaky bouncing noses out of 10.

SDK final Score :
Straight 5 down the middle. Good concept.. not so good execution.

[scooterb23]

I pretty much am agreeing with Vor][ex. I love weird games, this is definitely that. But in the long run, it doesn't quite hold up gameplay wise for very long. I do give them a lot of credit for trying something so adventurous in 1984. I guess I can also see why this game never made it to the home consoles at the time.

[XYXZYZ]

It's a neat interpretation of a game of Jacks, but I doubt it's something I'll ever play again.

Also, you can't play this game correctly with a joystick (It's designed for a trackball) so I'm at a disadvantage there.


9920, first (and only) credit. Blah

[scooterb23]

I never knew the game was for trackball. I've been playing it by keyboard arrow as well. It's not optimal, but I've found a groove with it at least

[Flack]

Change MAME to use the mouse on it. It's not great, but better than the keyboard.

[Arasoi]

Ah good old snacks'n jackson.

I really love this title, it's like a Kurt Vonnegut novel made into a video game.

As Flack noted it's best to mouse on this one, my little logitech lasermouse served me well here.

The gameplay is pretty simple as stated, and not too difficult. I got through a few days worth of meals before it just got too intense for me.

I think rating the game based on gameplay alone is fairly dull, I think it's more interesting to just try it because it's so weird. It's like a scene out of Slaughterhouse Five, almost. This poor bastard is in some sort of evil dimension where he's tortured by evil elves whilst trying to eat.

Fun game of the week!

[scooterb23]

It's getting to be that time of week...time to shuffle in a new game. So folks, gimme some thoughts.

[Arasoi]

Sorry, I nearly forgot. Let's have someone else's suggestion this week though, seriously.

I'll just second Bubble Bobble as I love that game.

[Gapporin]

Recommendations o' the week (in no particular order):

Metro-Cross
Money Puzzle Exchange
Neo Turf Masters
Pop n' Bounce (also happens to carry my namesake...*whistles*)

That's enough for now.

[scooterb23]

For the record, my best on Snacks was 8340.