Videogame Review, Night Stalker for the Intellivision 2 (w/ Brand New Intellivision 2 Controller)

Videogame Review, Night Stalker for the Intellivision 2 (w/ Brand New Intellivision 2 Controller)

People often give ratings to art without having a rating for their ratings.  In other words, a typical instructor will give you a grade but won’t give a grade on the grade itself.  You’re often just told that something is “false” or something is “wrong”- rarely, if ever, is there philosophy for the philosophy.  So you must understand me when I say there’s caution in my heart about Night Stalker.  I’ve tried this with a new controller and still can’t seem to get the movements really right.  Is it the night stalker, the aliens, the maze, the movements, the visuals, the spider webs, the rough edges, the clinging bats, the loitering space for robots, etc.?  Different elements come into play.  What Intellivision fans experience with this game is related to complexity.  Back then, in the early-80’s, just the idea of “moving your character” would’ve been a relatively new concept.  That’s why I’m hesitant even now in filling in the “classic” slots with quality enhancements in criticism.  Lots of guys have called different games “classics” when, in fact, there’s only been less than a century for video games at all so far up to this 2019 year.  Mario and Sonic will only be legends if people call them legends 200 years from now.  Recent stuff can’t be legends.  A legendary object must be something that has received praise from people beyond the lifespan of its original occupants.  Night Stalker has been labeled with a stamp of approval by an Intellivision fan’s pretensions- “for the next generation”, “in the next decade”, “best game of the year”.  What’s next?  The best game in two seconds?  Obviously we need to give more time for the following games in order to bring legendary status into awareness, and, for that, we’ll have to die with less impressive ratings and leave the ever-refined opinions to future critics.  It’s okay!  It’s not our job as moderns to describe an object of legendary status; that’s for future generations to decide.  This Intellivision game is a “classic” to folks who want immediate attention for their vanity items.  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves!  My negative grade for Night Stalker relates to its buggy programming, imbalanced difficulty, and lack of proper management on the gamer’s end.  How could’ve I played this game without feeling awkward or like someone in denial?  Shooting with the Intellivision 2 controller is a lot easier thanks to the device and its auto-touch dial pad.  Yet, the bullets move too slowly.  Eventually a crash-testing course makes itself apparent when robots fill corners with extreme speed and leave no room for fair gameplay abilities.  Donkey Kong on the Intellivision has much to do with Night Stalker because we’re talking about gravity mechanics provided for the night stalker in comparison to those provided for Mario in Donkey Kong.  The physics don’t make sense.  More color is in this shooter, but the movements and physics are kind of in likelihood with the Donkey Kong mechanics.  Only difference is that Donkey Kong can’t be played on the Intellivision 2 so, unless I get a buggy system which allows for the program, my brand new Intellivision 2 controller won’t be useful for Donkey Kong.  Besides, I can’t use my Intellivision 2 controller on the Sears Intellivision console due to the fact the Sears console does technically accept Atari 2600-like connections but also requires a controller wire with specific shape and form.