Heavy Mattel- Intellivision Lives! Review
As the proud owner of nearly two dozen retro collections, I’m most satisfied when an anthology follows the four golden ‘C’s; that is- the compendium is comprehensive, correct, cheap, and clearly organized. While a number of compilations include fascinating supplemental material- such as developer interviews, art, and original ads, if the core games aren’t presently accurately or in an organized fashion, I’m more apt to stick with the originals. One package that has effectively abided by the golden rules is the Intellivision Lives! collection, which has iterations across a swath of platforms.
One of the principal difficulties with offering a retrospective of Intellivision history is recreating the console’s controllers. While the system’s sixteen-point direction disc and four action buttons were easily emulated, the 12 button keypad (which accommodated slide-in overlays) has proved to be a bit of a challenge to simulate. While console versions across the Playstation 2, Xbox, and GameCube platforms allowed players to use the right stick along with key press to make a selection, this proved to be a cumbersome maneuver while mid-game. Like the iPhone adaptation, the recent DS translation uses the touchscreen to reproduce the keypad; here, it’s given its own real estate. For this reason, Intellivision Lives! feels refreshingly natural on Nintendo’s hardware.
With a three decade duration since the debut of Mattel’s console, there’s some disparity in how well some of the games in the collection have aged. While the simpler, arcade-inspired diversions like Astrosmash, Night Stalker, and the Centipede-esque Buzz Bombers still retain a respectable amount of entertainment value, the Intellivision’s collection of simulations don’t hold up as well against contemporary titles. Sports games were the Intellivision’s forte, although they were habitually two player competitions. It’s nice to see these game retrofitted to accommodate a solo gamer. Collectors will undoubtedly revel in the incorporation of the Intellivoice library, the incorporation of several Dungeon and Dragons titles (with the branding stripped) and the inclusion of a handful of previously unreleased cartridges. With the exception of third-party games and a few licensed titles, Intellivision Lives! is a respectable chronicle of the system’s history.
Abandoning the superfluous Hal’s Pizzeria motif from the console iterations, the DS version breaks the sixty-three game collection into five succinct categories: space, arcade, battle, sports, and gaming. With a second DS near, players can connect wirelessly, opening up a multitude of previously inaccessible two-player only titles. Thankfully, both initiating a competitive match and navigating through the library of games is effortless and speedy. While the console version’s video interviews with the Blue Sky Rangers was left out of this adaptation, the ability to play these games on the go sufficiently compensates for the omissions.
With a $15 admission price and a comprehensive collection of the console’s first-party library, Intellivision Lives! is recommended to any retro-mind aficionado. Although some of the cart’s titles can’t compare to contemporary, behemoth-budgeted games, there’s a certain sincerity and charm that present throughout the collection. For those interested in our pastime’s history, Intellivision Lives! is a chapter not to missed.
I loved my old IntelliVision. I might have to pick this up as it died last year.
$15 you say? I could probably swing that just to get my Astrosmash on.
Sorry but these game just don’t hold up. I played a plug and play one and each game got boring after 5 minutes.
Isnt there a Atari cart for DS that has the old games like Pitball and Demon Attack on it?
Do you have to use the touchscreen for the game or can you use the buttons?
Great review, Desert. Thanks for all your work.
So is it Intellivision or intelliVision with a capital V?
so many memories there. To think An Intellivision+60 games would have cost people over $1000 back in the 80’s. Technology has come so far.
Yeah, I worry the same thing. Anything before SNES just feels ancient.
thanks but no thanks. The whole cart is probably 128K.
Can you save your game mow? I know game saving didn’t get going until the NES, but I don’t want to leave my DS on all day.
maybe for $10…
Favorite game: Utopia. Everyone should try that one.
Astrosmash. There’s a reason it’s sold more than any other Intellivision game.
Yes, about half of the games require it. Baseball requires you to press where you want to throw the ball, many other titles use the screen to enter the number of players and difficulty level.
Just tell me if Bump and Jump made the cart. That could make or break it for me.
I thought Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack was the most popular cart. I was included with the purchase of the console, so I guess it could be considered ‘sold’.
I don’t think Bump and Jump is on there. That’s a Data East game. Its on the Wii collection I bought, though.
I’ve never played an intellivision game. Is there a play on the net where you can try them?
old gamers like old games, I guess.
At first I thought they updated the graphics, then I realized that the overlays look better than the games. I remember some of the art on intellivision/atari boxes. Some real imaginative stuff. Any they’d always give you a booklet showing all the games coming out. I guess the internet ruined all that.
Where they cheat codes on the intellivision? I don’t remember. Or did those come later?
Maybe I’ll try it.
Ataris games were better than anything on the Intellivision.
The games from the 80’s seem really old by todays standards, but for $15 this might be cool.
How can you say that? Atari was horrible. The sports games were brutal and the graphics blew. Intellivision was fantastic for the time. B-17 Bomber, Snafu, the sports games, all fantastic..
While I liked Intellivision, Atari’s Combat and all the Activision games kicked ass. Man, River Riad is still great.
Also Atari brought out there RealSports games which were much better than Home Rune and the the like.
They really need a Coleco collection.
No but the Activision PSP collection has some of the Imagic games.
Just bought this. With my GS credit, it was $5. Not bad at all.
I thInk the Coleco games are mostly licensed; well probably never see a collection.
Ok, I just bought this and I’m not seeing all 60 games. More like 40 something..What gives?
The plug-n-play games were nothing but re-programming of the originals created on a different system – they weren’t the original programs or emulations at all. I tried them; very poor representations. You might give this one a try. Yes, they are old, but for the time, there were some very imaginative games.
I did not know that..