Food Fight

I never had a 7800 during its production run. But when I first bought my console, it came with only one cartridge, and it wasn't for one of my arcade favorites. It was a game I had never heard of called Food Fight.

Since my expectations of the console was so high, I was at first disappointed to see that Food Fight was just a single-screen game. I remember thinking, "This is something I'd expect on the 2600." Over time, I've come to appreciate and greatly enjoy this game and recommend it highly for any 7800 owner.

In the game, you control a character whose sole purpose is to go from right to left - to get to an ice cream cone before it melts. But in your way - you knew there had to be a catch - are a bunch of apparently really ticked off chefs who want to stop you. Fortunately, there's piles of food such as watermelons, bananas, pies and tomatoes scattered around the screen - given the name of the game, I'm sure you know what to do with them - throw 'em! Hit a chef and he goes running away, but he is quickly replaced by other chefs who come up through "holes," which are hazards you can fall in. Also, the chefs can pick up food and throw it at you! Touch a chef or get hit, and the chefs do a little victory dance and all the food on screen flies at you.

A feature unique to the game but common on many games today is a replay feature. It seems to be activated whenever something particularly interesting happens during a level, such as a really close call. They don't happen often, but when they do, you'll see a flashing message that says, "Let's see that again!," and it's fun to watch.

The music in the game is fitting and the number of levels appears limitless. The graphics are pretty good, but most importantly of all, the gameplay is solid. You can use a 2600 controller with this game as only one fire button is needed.

It wasn't long after picking up my 7800 I came across O'Shea and, thanks to their super low prices, put together an instant 7800 inventory of many new games. However, my used Food Fight cart, which shows a couple signs of its age, is still among my favorites.