Game Review: Intellivision Lives! (DS)

Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the Atari 2600 was king of the consoles. But just like today, there was competition back then, too. One of the competing game consoles was the Intellivision, featuring better graphics, more complex games and controls, and even voice samples. I never had an Intellivision as a kid, so I don’t have too many special memories about it. However, my cousins owned one, so I would get to play it when we would visit them in Alabama for Christmas. I remember playing Frog Bog with my cousin Jana for an entire afternoon! Now you can enjoy Frog Bog and more than 60 other classic games with Intellivision Lives! for the Nintendo DS.

The classics on this compilation are organized by genre and easy to find. You have Space (Astrosmash, Space Armada), Arcade (Frog Bog, Thin Ice), Battle and Simulation, Sports, Gaming (cards and checkers), and Mulitplayer. Each game automatically saves your high scores, too. And multiplayer games only require one game card to play. Plus, some of the games here were unreleased on the Intellivision back then. Each game has the original box art and instructions, too.

One of the distinctive things about the Intellivision was the unique joystick controller. It had a button keypad, similar to a telephone or calculator, and each game came with an overlay which you placed over the keys so you’d know the right buttons to press. Intellivision emulators in the past haven’t been able to accurately depict the overlay controls, but now they can with the DS touch screen. On the bottom screen for each game is the exact overlay, and you can tap the screen as well as use the D-pad and buttons.

Intellivision Lives! is also a great deal on the DS at only 20 bucks. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying each game separately on the Xbox 360 Game Room! Great for kids, also. I’ve noticed that very young kids tend to take to classic games like a duck to water, and there are even a couple of educational learning games on here, too. Plus with more than 60 games, they won’t get bored anytime soon. Intellivision Lives! is rated E for Everyone.

In the comments section, let me know what YOUR favorite Intellivision games were. I think mine are Thin Ice, Frog Bog, and Shark! Shark!. (If anyone wants a full list of the games on this collection, I can probably post them in the comments section, too, if anyone’s interested.)

9 Responses to “Game Review: Intellivision Lives! (DS)”

  1. “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasures of Tarmin” was the ultimate for me. It was a Wizardry style first person dungeon crawler. And yes, that is the full title as displayed on the game box.

    My other favorite was “Discs of TRON”.

  2. I had a console as a kid. So bought this for the DS2.

    It’s the only games I can beat my kids on.

    Yes Frog Bog and Astro smash are still as great as I remember.

    I went online to check out the company and found an Ipad version of 6 games for three bucks I can play on my i pad at the airport.

  3. Crash – Tarmin is on here,but without the AD&D license. They call it “Minotaur.”

    No TRON though, sadly. I liked that one too.

  4. Intellivision just linked to your review from their facebook page. Cool!
    Cary you should consider joining us on FB. It would expose your reviews to a wider audience.

    -Chuck

  5. “Tron Deadly Discs” is the name of the Intellivision game, and yes, it’s one of my favorites for the system, which I have owned for a short while in 1984 before it malfunctioned.

  6. One of the neighbor kids had intellivision. It had much better graphics. I enjoyed some of the sport games. (I don’t think he had many of the others…)

    I’m ALWAYS a fan of Tron… enjoyed the Discs of Tron on my Atari 2600..

  7. Deals are something you need to use to save lots of some dough.

  8. These deals are completely reliable, but you have to make
    sure that your retailer will accept them.

  9. They nearly do every one of the meet your needs; they listing local
    shop sales, plus they checklist the deals that choose people sales.

Discussion Area - Leave a Comment




Tired of typing this out each time? Register as a subscriber!