Not even spinach can save this game.

User Rating: 2 | Popeye NES
*** POPEYE ***

THE GOOD

-It has Popeye in the game

THE BAD

-Boring gameplay
-Bad graphics
-Uninspiring level design
-Sluggish controls

OVERVIEW

In this game you play as Popeye in his quest to evade Brutus and retrieve Hearts, Music Notes, or Letters from Olive Oil before they reach the bottom of the screen. There are three levels to play on like the shipping dock, house and boat. When you collect the required amount of tokens, from Olive, you will advance to next level. If you miss one of the tokens or get hit by Brutus the game ends and you lose a life. You can defeat Brutus for a short period of time by eating spinach. When you do this, Popeye turns from white to green and then you are able to knock him out. Another key thing to note about the spinach is that Olive's tokens stop moving. But be careful, because you only get to eat the spinach once per round.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay for Popeye is very boring and is probably mostly due to the purpose of the whole game. Popeye is the great hero that defeated Brutus and saved Olive but in this game he doesn't act like the great hero that we know and love. Instead you run around while avoiding Brutus and collect falling tokens from Olive. For me, the whole point of the game is stupid. Anyways, there are only three very short levels. This might have been ok if the level design was up to par but in this game the level design is terrible. The controls for the game are simple. Popeye can move and punch. Now you can't punch Brutus, unless you eat spinach, but you can punch other obstacles to impede Brutus's movement. One thing you'll notice is that Popeye moves sluggishly which makes it difficult to avoid Brutus. This can get very frustrating. Once you complete all three levels, you get to play them all over again, yay! This makes the game very repetitive and decreases the replay value.

GRAPHICS & SOUND

The visuals are terrible in Popeye. This and with bad level design, makes for a real eye sore.

This is probably the best part about the game. The music is pretty good. This game has all the great music from the Popeye cartoon.

CONCLUSION

The game is terrible. Even if you really like Popeye it is tough to recommend this game. With boring and short gameplay it really isn't worth your time and money. I like the Popeye comic, but this game doesn't live up to the great Popeye name.