Cakewalk Review

One sad thing about the Atari 2600 is that, as things got bad some really, really good games got overlooked in the glut of suck on the market. As with most games by CommaVid, this one came out near the end of the system’s life, so it makes it incredibly rare today, one of the most sought after by collectors. This is a real shame because Cakewalk has all the markings of greatness that would have made it and the company behind it a thing of legend if it only came earlier.

Cakewalk opens with a nice little intro screen and then enters into the cake factory. The conveyor belts and cakes look wonderful. They also did a nice job on the baker and the floor sweeper who comes in if you drop anything. One thing I liked about this is the nice variety of colors, though it does look a little bland. I think the programmers figured a black background enabled them to milk more out of the sprites. This seems true to an extent, but compared to something like Pressure Cooker it looks a little empty. Still, not exatly bad, especially for a third-party company.

As for the sound, Cakewalk delivers pretty well. The opening track is a nice little jingle to set the mood, but otherwise the game is silent minus the sound effects. They used some pretty bland, single tones for the sound when you package up the cakes, and in fact other than this you only really get the sound of the cakes falling and being cleaned up. It doesn’t have much else to offer. The jingle repeats when you go on “coffee break”, and that’s about it. They could have adde a couple of more sounds or tunes to spice it up, something like Tapper did. Good example, because this leads us into the gameplay department.

Cakewalk is almost identical in many ways to the legendary Tapper, which was also ported to the Atari 2600. Like Tapper, you control a character who has to stop a number of items (here cakes and cookies instead of drinks) from hitting the ground. You’re faced with series of six conveyor belts where different numbers of cakes come at you at varying speeds. Some move slow, others fast and in larger groups. The gingerbread men occasionally make an appearance, jumping about and otherwise acting unpredictable, and sometimes you’ll see silverware come by, which you have to avoid. At certain point levels you get a coffee cup, which gives you an extra life. As the game progresses, things get faster and more complicated. Luckily, and this is where it differens from Tapper, you can stop a single belt for a few seconds so you can catch a cake or slow down the speed of a row to get things in order. Once touched it stays still for a few moments and then moves again. This little feature allows for lots of strategy and quick thinking, managing to spice up Cakewalk for more advanced gamers. Check it out:

However, though it’s a really fun game Cakewalk is pretty much a copy and combination of two games; Piece O’ Cake and Tapper. Like Tapper, you have to stop a number of items from falling off a series of platforms, and like Piece O’ Cake, you have to work in a cake factory. So, really, Cakewalk pretty much takes the concept of one and applies the gaming idea of the other. As such, you can’t really call it creative because it really only does one thing different, and that’s adding the ability to control one of the platforms for some strategy.

Still, I’ve played Cakewalk a number of times and it’s one of my favorite games in my 2600 collection. It has a lot of fast pace for even the most skilled, and there are plenty of options to try out that involve several variations and speeds of play. Cakewalk is definitely not easy, and it takes real practice to master it. As for length, like most Atari games, it lasts as long as you can play, but it has that ‘beat the old high score’ thing going for it. I think you’ll play it more, if you can even find it in the first place.

Cakewalk is a great example of what the Video Game Crash would hide from the populace. CommaVid simply picked the wrong time to come onto the market, leaving fun games like Cakewalk in the shadows and then making it a real bitch to play them today because you have to sell your heart to get them. I was lucky enough to get it from a friend for a great deal, but don’t bet on actually seeing this thing in the wild. It’s not something I’d kill for, but if you love that Tapper-style of game, then Cakewalk will be sure to provide plenty of enjoyment and challenge.