Thwocker (2600) Review

Date purchased: Sept. 25, 2015
Price paid: $0.00 -- free game under $10 with any other purchase
Dates played: Apr. 2-3, 2017
Playtime: Unknown
Date reviewed: Apr. 3, 2017
Date posted: Jan. 14, 2023
Rating: 4/10

Completed the symphony on several game modes.

This was originally unreleased and, according to the in-game manual, is only 80% completed.

You put together a symphony by collecting target notes by jumping up and down various platforms in a vertical layout while avoiding various instruments that move horizontally. If you hit an instrument, you lose a life, with each of them having a musical effect that somewhat simulates the different instruments. After putting together the symphony, you have to make it back to the top and collect the Treble Clef, after which you can then hit the previously deadly instruments for more points. At this point is where its incompleteness seems to be, as there is at least one EXIT sign on the level and I'm taking a wild guess that hitting one of them at this point would either restart the level or start a new level. As it is, you can just keep bouncing around the stage, collecting more points forever and you'll have to restart the game.

It does have about a dozen different game modes of varying difficulty, layout, and symphony length, which would give it some lasting power. The controls take a little to get used to. The worst thing about the game is that hitting a wall or side of a platform bounces you quite a ways away. It would also be nice to have more than the one symphony, "Frère Jacques".

It's a pretty neat concept. Too bad it never got completed.