January 4
Game: Human Cannonball
Release Date: January Something, 1978
Platform: Atari 2600
Genre: Puzzle
Anecdotes: No, this is not the Human Cannonball from American Gladiators, nor is it similar. There’s no rope swinging here. The title is far more literal here. This would actually be a good game to teach geometry and physics, except for the idea of shooting someone out of a cannon and the minor detail of the character crashing into the ground if you miss. You WILL make the guy go splat far more often than he’ll land in the safety basket.
Description: You control a cannon with a man inside. Your task is to shoot him out of the cannon and into the basket. You will control one or two of the following variables: speed, angle, or cannon location. The computer randomly determines what you can’t.
Positives: It can be fun to launch people out of a cannon but…..
Negatives: …..it gets old FAST. There’s no depth or substance to this game and I couldn’t stand it for more than ten minutes. It’s really boring. There’s only one screen and I only knew what I can do because I played the PS2 version first. It just was unable to hold my interest.
Grade: D