Crystal Castles is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. The player controls a cartoon bear by the name of Bentley Bear, who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies out to get him as well as the gems. Crystal Castles is notable for being one of the first arcade action games with an actual ending, whereas most games of the time either continued indefinitely, ended in what was termed a "kill screen" or simply just restarted from the first level, and to contain advance warp zones.
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slow DOWN dude.
Hours of life. Just for that snake thing to bounce me straight into insanity.
Played as part of Atari 50.
Very good looking for the time, and it's a novel take on the oversaturated genre of Pac-Man clones that arcades saw in the 80s. Unfortunately, though, the movement even with a mouse feels a bit too clunky (and I only can imagine it's worse on a trackball), and the complete void of difficulty in the first few levels and absence of continue options make this not really enticing for more than a couple games.
Very good looking for the time, and it's a novel take on the oversaturated genre of Pac-Man clones that arcades saw in the 80s. Unfortunately, though, the movement even with a mouse feels a bit too clunky (and I only can imagine it's worse on a trackball), and the complete void of difficulty in the first few levels and absence of continue options make this not really enticing for more than a couple games.
Points for being a unique take on the maze game. The isometric view and varied level designs keep it fresh throughout. The sound design is ok, and I'm not a huge fan of any of the sprite designs. Bentley the Bear especially looks like the guy in the bear suit from The Shining so that doesn't do the game any favors.
Very stylish with its isometric level design and overall art direction. It's fast-paced Pac-Man with a trackball, and it works well.
This game is very pretty, even for a game from 1983. Love it's 70s fairytale aesthetic.