“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

BurgerTime is the kind of game that sounds ridiculous on paper, looks ridiculous on your screen, but is somehow completely addictive.

In an era where most games involved shooting aliens or ripping off Pac-Man, BurgerTime is about Hamburger construction.

You play as chef Peter Pepper. You are trying to construct a delicious burger by running over the top of the various ingredients (bun, meat patty, tomato, etc.) which are placed on platforms. Running over each ingredient causes it to fall down one level, if it lands on top of another ingredient that one falls one level. Your goal is to get on all the ingredients on top of the bun.

Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg pursue you and try to stop you from assembling your burger. You can stun them with a blast of pepper or kill them by either dropping the ingredients on their head or having them stand on an ingredient as the support is knocked out. You earn points for killing enemies. If you are trying for high scores, taking out multiple enemies out at once is key.

As you progress, each level becomes harder and harder as it becomes easier and easier for the enemies to trap you. Most gamers won’t make it past level 2.

Why did I choose this game?

I remember my cousin got this game for the NES and we spent hours battling for the top score. I have a lot of fond memories of dodging Mr. Pickle.

I also picked this game because there was a brief time where I had the top score for the year on Gametap (so what if it was right at the start of the year and my score was quickly obliterated, I was still #1.)

How does it hold up?

The concept is still fresh and weird. There is nothing like getting chased by Mr. Egg and Mr. Hot Dog to get your blood pumping.

The main issue with the game has always been the controls. In every single version from the arcade to NES to Gametap, the game doesn’t always recognize when I am hitting up on a ladder. This is a fairly big problem when 78% of the game is going up and down ladders. It can lead to some screaming and shouting when Mr. Hot Dog catches you because the game didn’t recognize that you were hitting up.

Tags: Burger Time, burgertime, FOG, Friday Old Games, Mattel Electonics, NES, Peter Pepper

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.