BurgerTime
System: NES
Release Date: May 1987
Developer: Data East, Sakata SAS
Publisher: Data East
Genre: Platformer
Oh BurgerTime. I used to love you when I was a kid. I mean, I understand why. Look at those giant, glorious burgers I’d be in charge of crafting! I could have a delicious meal for an entire day with burgers that big. Mmmmm… burgers…
You are Chef Peter Pepper and your goal is to make hamburgers. You do this by walking across the hamburgers and stacking them up at the bottom of their column. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! In their never ending quest to stop you from creating your meat filled masterpiece, are the evil Food Foes. Mr. Hot Dog, likely jealous that you’re choosing to craft gourmet sandwiches not including him, teams up with Mr. Egg, who I’m happy to add to any hamburger, and Mr. Pickle, who can just get the hell out of here.
The Food Foes chase you around the stage in a predictable manner. If a Mr. Hot Dog reaches a ladder, they will use it. If you are above them, they move up. If you are below them, they move down. If you’re on the same level, I noticed them going up more often than not. If they’re reaching a floor from the ladder, they will go left if you are left and right if you are to their right. Mr. Egg seemed to sometimes skip ladders and floors and charge me if I was on the same plane as him. Mr. Pickle seems to be smarter than Mr. Egg, but I didn’t get enough experience on level three to actually figure it out.
Chef Pepper can use his namesake as a weapon to stun the Food Foes. This is helpful to set them up to be crushed by a falling hamburger piece, or to send them down several levels if standing on a hamburger piece. This is how you rack up the points. The best way to do this is to use the enemy AI to group them all together. Then hit them with a well placed pepper and BAM! Make them a hamburger topping. You can collect extra pepper by collecting the static food piece that sometimes appears on the level, be it ice cream cones, coffee, or french fries.
The controls demand precision. If you’re on a ladder just above or below a platform, you won’t be able to disembark. This will cause deaths that anger and frustrate you. I went back to my Xbox controller over my new Sega Saturn controller because the D-pad is too sensitive (this will be nice when I get to the era of fighting games).
Graphics: 1.0
The graphics aren’t good by any means. They’re super plain.
Sound: 1.0
The sound isn’t particularly good, either. The looping song gets annoying quickly and the sound effects are nothing special.
Gameplay: 1.5
It’s easy to understand how to play, but the precision required to move is frustrating.
Difficulty: 2.0
Learning how the Food Foes move and then using it against them is satisfying.
Fun Factor: 1.0
Nah, kid me was dumb. BurgerTime on NES is stupid.
Overall Grade: 1.3
BurgerTime earns a D+. I can’t say I’d like to go back and play this ever again. Too bad I can’t keep the rose-colored memories.