Pole Position - Atari 2600
A review by iN008.

Racing at it's um...
Pole Position was the first of the Pole Position games, these games were mostly ported to different consoles, including the Commodore and DOS. They did however create a sequel, which was later to be remade or remixed as they called it for the iPhone and etc. The series in itself was a basic driving game in the 3rd person perspective and were very basic altogether, at the time it wouldn't have had much competition with other driving games and thus was probably the most well known. Most of the ports to other consoles for this game would include slightly better graphics and mild game-play changes however nothing major was ever edited.

Burning the rubber.
The game in itself is based on F1 racing so you would probably expect lightning fast speeds or at least good handling... well no, the game itself really wasn't that good. Due to the limitations of the Atari 2600, and it being created quite early in the life-span of the Atari 2600, I wouldn't really expect to much out of the title at all.

Graphics and Design : 4/10
Overall the graphics are very poor, however are still better than some other titles on the 2600 but overall still poor. The design for your F1 car is well... pretty good, being up-close to the screen made it so that it need extra detail, the design itself is very clear. However my problem lies with the opponent cars, these look outlandish and weird, sure they got the distance scaling done okay, but they did fail to make it look even mildly realistic. This matched with the shaken road boundaries made the game a eye-sore. The road boundaries go very shaky when your turning and it looks confusing. Another little nit-pick is the backdrop is very plain and uninspired. The clouds look like oddities and the mountainous terrain just seems out of place. One thing I will give the game props for is the fact the information is displayed very well, the score, speed, lap and time take one glance to check and you can continue to focus, however due to the lack of things happening I wouldn't be worrying about taking my eyes off the road.

Sound : 1/10
Honestly there really isn't all that many sounds, and of-course there isn't even any music. The constant driving sound drones on and is quite bad to listen to, the only other real sounds are that of jingles and skidding. The opening jingle is slightly refreshing however losses it's charm easily and isn't that interesting. If you drive along the sides of the road the droning noise is about 10 times worse and crashing is just a constantly used sound. However I will say the skidding noise is very good and is someone more realistic than any of the other sounds within the game.

Addictiveness and Replay-ability : 4/10
The game itself is rather tedious as you need to reach specific times to advance, this matched with the fact that you cannot get that far if you fail to reach these the replay-ability all but dies and there really is much in the game to begin with, one play and you've seen just about everything. I couldn't even play the game longer than 10 minutes it's just that boring and really it fails to get my attention. I feel bad about this because usually I enjoy racing games, however this fails to do anything for me.

Depth : 1/10
The game is rather short altogether excluding re-doing the qualifying race. The game only has a Grand Prix after qualifying and this isn't that long. This makes it so that there is even less to be worrying about missing since really the Grand Prix is just the same as the qualifying race just with more cars and a little bit more difficulty. As for choice there really isn't any at all. You are forced to go on a fixed track and the only thing you can control is speed and you may say direction but even if you just slam into the side your car continues to go, this seems like a weird flaw. So practically you have no choice what so ever. This in all makes it a rather lack-luster experience. The game is short, and features no choices thus your first experience with the game will probably be the same as your second, third, fourth and etc.

Story : N/A
There isn't even a story, most Atari 2600 games have a story of-sorts on their box. This game does not so there isn't even a motivational character behind the wheel, it's just some guy, and just some race.

Difficulty : 6/10
This game has lose controls and can be harder to handle, it felt like I was driving on terracotta, like the ground would break if I drove like a real person. The game-play is just boring, the basic mechanics are very... basic. Rival cars are just stagnant hardly moving besides the occasional stutter or lane change. Heck the tracks themselves are very straight in the sense that they featured mostly straights and the occasional turn. This makes the game rather easy, however the reason it's got a higher difficulty rating is because of the fact it has rather bad controls, they feel sluggish and bad, they just don't work for me. I mean it's easy enough to control it's just the game responds to them weirdly and it can be quite annoying.

Overall : 2.6/10
It's not the greatest, heck it's probably one of the worst driving games there is. Lacking on all the major fronts it just falls behind some of the other Atari 2600 games. It's really disappointing that it doesn't actually live up to the impression it sets out, I mean you would think the game would be some-what good having so many ports and even sequels. But who do we really blame here, the expectations set up by the many ports the game has or the makers of the game for how bad the game actually is. Would I recommend it? No, what I would recommend is something from a later generation like Lotus. If you do play the game, well... have fun.

iN008 : ...well, in the game's defense, the arcade version was better.
But I agree. Indy 500 was a much better game. Great review, by the way!

iN008 : Hey, there is NO reason why I shouldn't like your reviews! These are REALLY good! I must say, this game does indeed stink. It is bad.