Sneak ‘N Peek Review

Every time I become convinced that I have seen every genre that the Atari 2600 could possibly have to offer, I run into a game that disproves that theory. Whether it be something basic like 3-D tic-tac-toe, or a surprisingly complex game like Kung-Fu Master, the Atari 2600 library almost never ceases to surprise me. For that reason, I was less surprised when I came across Sneak n’ Peek by U.S. Games, a hide and seek game.

For those of you who do not know how to play hide and seek, I will make the explanation simple. One person hides. The other person looks for them. That is what this game entails. In the one-player modes, the computer always hides and the player is always the one doing the looking. In two-player modes, the players alternate hiding. So, how do you go about finding the other person? You wander around the rooms in the house and walking close to everything in the rooms. When you approach the object in which the other player is hiding, you win and the round is over. The game does time you so you can try to improve on your times.

The environments are reasonably detailed and look as realistic as is possible on the Atari 2600. The people also look pretty good. However, in an odd turn of events, the sound is probably the high point in this game. No, there really are not that many sound effects, but this is one of the first Atari 2600 games I am aware of that has in-game music. Most games with music just have one short melody on the title screen. Actually, Sneak n’ Peek has a title screen of sorts itself, although that screen is recycled as the yard, one of the “rooms” in which the game of hide and seek takes place. Overall, then, the aesthetics of this game are surprisingly good for a third-party game.

The game has four game modes, although all that really changes between them is whether the game is one-player or two-player and also whether the hiding place locations are fixed or random. That is not really that much variety and does little to add much depth to a game that, in all reality, never had much depth to begin with. The game may be fun to play for a round or two every once in a great while, but it is hardly the type of game that is going to coerce people to spend chunks of time many hours long playing it over and over. On the plus side, this is one of the most common of the games that U.S. Games released for the Atari 2600, so it should be cheap and reasonably easy to find. As long as you do not pay too much for it and do not go in expecting a long-term engaging experience, you may find it to be an interesting diversion every now and then.