DESCRIPTION

As much as Odyssey 2 and Videopac owners appreciated Parker Brothers' attempts to bring more arcade games home for those systems, it looks as though trying to port Popeye to the Odyssey 2 was a case of the programmers biting off more than they could chew. Like the versions released for the ColecoVision and Atari 2600, this is the same Nintendo-spawned climbing game in which you guide Popeye around the screen to catch Olive Oyl's falling hearts, avoid Bluto, and hopefully grab some spinach along the way. Unlike those versions on other consoles, however, the Odyssey 2 version of Popeye falls a little short of the mark, with graphics which barely get the point of the game across, and the controls are sometimes a bit sloppy. Fortunately, this is offset a bit by the difficulty level being dialed down to compensate, but this hardly makes it a good game. Popeye's chief value will be to collectors and completists; of Parker Brothers' four games for the Odyssey 2, this (along with Super Cobra) is one of the two rarer games, and one of the hardest-to-find titles for that system. ~ Earl Green, All Game Guide