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Despite the perception of 1982’s lineup and its role in the crash, the year did provide a handful of gems on both home consoles and arcades, many of which are still great fun to play today.
7 Donkey Kong Jr.
Donkey Kong Jr. is the sequel to 1981’s Donkey Kong, which was an important release in gaming history as it introduced the industry to two of its most iconic characters - Mario and Donkey Kong - and is also regarded as the first-ever platformer.
As the title suggests, Donkey Kong Jr. puts players in control of Donkey Kong’s son. Whereas the 1981 game featured Donkey Kong as the villain and Mario as the hero, Donkey Kong Jr. puts Mario in the unfamiliar role of villain as Donkey Kong’s son tries to rescue his captured father. Donkey Kong Jr’s core gameplay is very similar to its predecessor, though it features a jungle setting rather than a construction one.
6 Pole Position
Pole Position was developed by Namco and is considered to be one of, if not the best racing game released during the golden age of arcade video games. Pole Position’s visuals may not look like much by today’s standards, but the bright colors and sharp edges were eye-catching at the time and were a driving force behind the racing game’s huge commercial success.
Pole Position was also influential for its use of product placement, as billboards alongside the tracks featured real advertisements, something that was uncommon in gaming at the time.
5 Zaxxon
Like the aforementioned Pole Position, Zaxxon caught the eye of arcade goers in the early ’80s with its visuals. In Zaxxon’s case, it wasn’t the quality of the visuals and graphics that drew people in – it was the perspective.
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Zaxxon was the first isometric game to be released internationally and the first one to be a major success. As such, for many people, the isometric shooter’s gameplay was unlike anything they’d seen before, making them desperate to try the innovative release and see how far they could get through the game’s dangerous fortresses.
4 Qbert
Qbert (also known as Q*bert and Q-Bert) is one of the many games released shortly after Zaxxon that employed an isometric perspective of its own.
Qbert is a simple but addictive game that seamlessly blends the inherently opposing action and puzzle genres. The game puts players on a pyramid made up of cubes and tasks them with changing the color of each cube while avoiding enemies and hazards. The game was originally released in arcades in October 1982 before releasing on a vast range of systems, including Atari 2600, NES, Game Boy Color, iOS, and PlayStation 4.
3 Ms. Pac-Man
Following the enormous worldwide success of the legendary 1980 maze game Pac-Man, a sequel was released in January 1982, this time with Pac-Man’s wife taking center stage.
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Developers General Computer Corporation didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken and kept Ms. Pac-Man’s core gameplay very similar to its predecessor. There were a few changes, though, such as the inclusion of more tunnels, semi-random movement from the ghosts to prevent pattern recognition, and moving fruit.
General Computer Corporation and Midway have received plenty of credit since Ms. Pac-Man’s release for implementing a female protagonist in such a high-profile release, as the character paved the way for human female protagonists in mainstream gaming like Samus and Lara Croft.
2 Pitfall!
Pitfall! was developed and published by industry giants Activision and was released on a plethora of consoles, including Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and ColecoVision. The platformer puts players in a jungle and tasks them with collecting a range of treasures before a 20-minute time limit expires. The platformer stood out for how fleshed out it was, particularly its wide range of obstacles and enemies that players had to avoid.
The game helped define the flip-screen platform genre, thanks to its impressive range of 255 screens. Pitfall! received a sequel in February 1984 on the Atari 2600 titled Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, though the game struggled to have the same impact as its predecessor.
1 Dig Dug
Dig Dug is a maze game that tasks players with defeating a series of enemies in each stage. As players progress through the game, enemies increase in numbers and speed.
The game is still great fun to play today, mainly due to its level of strategy. Dig Dug isn’t XCOMor Civilizationby any means, but it does force players to approach levels strategically and think on their feet if they want to achieve a high score.
Like many of the other games on this list, Dig Dug has been released on a multitude of systems over the years, including Atari 2600, Commodore 64, NES, Game Boy Advance, and Xbox 360.
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