DESCRIPTION

Completed but never released during the heyday of the Atari VCS, 20th Century Fox's Pick Up is a surprising title from what was, at the time, one of the major game manufacturers for that platform.

Players control a hopeful bachelor who's trying to impress his ladyfriend — shown at the side of the screen — by shooting the items falling from the top of the screen. This portion of the game is more or less a Megamania clone, only replacing the targets with such time-honored dating accessories and gifts like perfume bottles, flowers, hearts, and cars (hey, the video game industry was booming back then — an expensive date probably would've been the norm).

The suitor must avoid shooting the same object twice, or his ladyfriend will drop one level closer to the ground; if she drops all the way, it costs the player a life. As soon as every gift has been blasted once, the player gets to "pick up" the girl and take her off to a hotel room (!) for a brief interlude behind closed doors, during which the player just gets to look at the score (so to speak).

Compared to X-rated games such as Custer's Revenge and Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em, Pick Up is pretty tame fare, about as racy as, say, The Sims: Hot Date. But given that those adult games whipped up a massive backlash from women's organizations, even a relatively innocuous title like Pick Up would have been in the wrong place in the wrong time. It was finally released at the 2002 Classic Gaming Expo. ~ Earl Green, All Game Guide