The Game: As a small blue spherical creature whose sole sensory organs consist of two eyes, two antennae and an enormous mouth, your mission – should you choose to accept it – is to start munching on the segmented body of the dreaded Dratapillar while avoiding its always-lethal head. When you consume one of its body segments, the Dratapillar’s two henchbeings – known only as Drats – turn white with fright and you can send them a-spinning (normally, they’re deadly to touch too). Eating all of the Dratapillar segments gets you to the next level, and the mayhem begins anew. (North American Philips, 1982)
Memories: Perhaps just out of spite, the first non-educational game released to take advantage of the Odyssey 2’s new Voice add-on module featured K.C. Munchkin, the Pac-Man-esque critter who had landed Magnavox on the wrong side of a look-and-feel software lawsuit filed by Atari. Only this time, not only did K.C. grace a game which smacked of Pac-Man, but also featured elements more than a little similar to Atari’s own Centipede game. This made for a very strange combination…
One of the weirdest quirks of the game is the variety of strange quips, warnings and taunts that the Voice shouts at you. In a voice that alternates between maniacal and reassuringly game-show-host-ish, it says such things as “Go!” and “Hurry!” and “Look out!” and “Ha ha ha ha…you did it!” when you clear a level. Truly bizarre!