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                  RESERVOIR GODS' "DOUBLE JUGGLER VEGETABOBBLE"
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system.... STf, STe, MegaSTe, Falcon, TT, 1 MB RAM, RGB, VGA

credits... code - mr pink
           grfx - sh3
           musx - msg

release... o4/2oo2

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Yaaouuu... It seems as have the RESERVOIR GODS ended their big break since 1999,
since not too  long  time after  their smashing "CHUCHU ROCKET" conversion  of a
DreamCast game, now another release popped up.

This game features a quite simple game idea, juggling, as the title already says
and a closer look  onto the game itself proves. This small game was put together
as 24 hours game, that doesn't means  that you need  24 hours to play it through
or that it will  delete itself after 24 hours, but that all stuff was done in 24
hours instead. So you will ask me, is it possible to create a game in 24 hours..

"Yes" I would say... but then you know that the game will have some drawbacks as
well, since even for a conversion of a known game  idea you need a lot  of time,
at least if you're willing to squeeze out that idea until the very end.

The fine thing at first, not alike as it was with "CHUCHU" now all Atarians with
at least 1 MB RAM can  play the game at  once. Furthermore it doesn't matters if
you're running a  VGA or RGB monitor, it runs fine  on both... and last  but not
least they support any kind of  controls, including Jaguar Pad, as always. So on
the systems side it's a typical RESERVOIR GODS game, on the known high technical
standard...

So we must take a look behind  the scenes to find out more... After starting the
game a  slideshow alike intro, showing  up several  logo and title  pages in the
typical SH3 style, that means damn  static and fancy  coloured logo's, comes up,
without any sound or  music... Hum... But  this changes  as the main menu of the
game appears. This looks like this...



Yeps, it's a quite strange  coloured thing. On the upper right  corner the whole
menu stuff is located, containing the usual buttons to turn music and fx or even
the speaker on or off, choosing the controls and play level.

Play level doesn't  means in what  level you  have to start, but what difficulty
you choose to play, since the game itself doesn't features any levels.
There are two difficulties to choose, A and B... A is called in the readme to be
the Lamer stage, B the Super stage. Since I'm a lamer, yurk, I tried A at first.
Finally you reach the game screen, that looks like this...



Eeeks, game over!

The horrible slim lined guy below is the juggler and  your aim is to avoid it to
let the blue balls fall down to the floor. Therefore you can move your arms left
and right  while pressing the special buttons to do so. Then the ugly guy on the
playfield moves  his arms like a  spastic. Btw... you have just 3 possible moves
at all, that means that the  guy is always moving both  hands and so you have to
take a closer look onto the flight of the blue balls.

But after all the balls aren't very fast  in falling, the only problems occuring
if they're coming down all three at once, because then fast movements are needed
to avoid a clash on the floor and the obvious game over.

And that's all about  the game idea! Damn  simple, isn't it?! It is, without any
doubt or question. But if you  think the different game  modes feature something
burning too, you're wrong, since I didn't saw a big difference in them, and also
in the "hard" game mode I knocked away the highscore at the first attempt.

As I said highscore, yes, there is one, a saveable too that is a nice feature to
hold up  the motivation. And here it is damn  needed, since the game doesn't has
any special features, it's  just pure juggling and so the neat chip musix or the
small gimicks on  the upper border of  the screen, don't help to make the sparse
thing much  better... Mmmh... after all there aren't much more words to loose in
here... except the final ones...

...final words...

"DOUBLE JUGGLER VEGETABOBBLE" is a nice  title for a quite  uninspired game that
doesn't  only torments  the eyes  and ears (luckily you can switch off the fx!),
but also the  motivation, since the game  hasn't a deeper  meaning. I think only
the implemented  saveable highscore  will bring people to the point to play it a
bit more often. Ok, it's 24 hours game, but after all you see it in nearly every
point, the very sparse grafix  that seem to be inspired by some LCD game, or the
nearly not  existing game play. Highlites  are the neat  chip music and the high
technical level, that makes it run on any Atari 68oXo hardware without any probs
and the easy controls. So this makes the game to a neat break filler, but really
nothing more. After the great "CHUCHU ROCKET" that surely will bring wake nights
while playing, this little thingie here is a bit disappointing... :/
But after  all Atari  gamers haven't  a big choice  nowadays and I believe, if I
take a look at some games released in the past, that also this one will find its
lovers...

___ratings______________________________________________________________________

visuals .....  2o % - Torment me! I wanna be a LCD pocket game!
audio .......  7o % - Neat chip sound, but nerving fx...
controls .... 1oo % - hehe, really, just left and right! grin...
idea ........  1o % - not much to say, just juggling...
motivation ..  3o % - no more stages, boring with the time, highscore saveable

___overall_____46_%_____________________________________________________________

I just hope that the next RESERVOIR GODS' games will be a bit more addictive and
fun to play... As I look onto their release list  so far, this one  is maybe the
absolut deepest point in their row of releases... too bad...

.tSCc.                                                          moondog . o4/2k2
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