Pogo Joe

Here's a real first: a game originally programmed for the Commodore 64 that doesn't look quite as pretty on the Atari. Not that Pogo Joe's play-action suffers in the translation from one major gaming computer to another. On the contrary, William F. Denman Jr.'s color-changing contest is a pretty, challenging multi-screen action game. In fact, its graphics are quite good, despite the fact that the C64 version's are better.

Players control Pogo Joe, a mischievous-looking boy on a pogo stick. Joe must hop back and forth across the on-screen cylinders, changing the colors of each one's top. Brightly-colored eggs appear at intervals and Joe earns points by crushing them. Once they hatch, though, they can cost him a life by touching him; or run away and be caught for extra points; or change their cylinders back to neutral colors, depending on the creature hatched.

If you've never seen Pogo Joe on the Commodore 64, this translation of the game will prove a challenging, very enjoyable game with lots of replay potential. It eliminates the frustration of falling off the playfield, an obvious danger in most of the other color-changing games on the market, giving players the chance to concentrate on point-earning strategies instead.