Kaboom!

Time to beat

Main story

6 h8 reports

Main + extras

9.3 h6 reports

Completionist

14.5 h3 reports

Median of the hours reported by players who completed the game.

Synopsis

Kaboom! is a 1981 action video game developed and published by Activision for the Atari 2600. The game involves a Mad Bomber dropping bombs at increasing speeds as the player controls a set of water buckets to catch them. The gameplay was based on the Atari arcade video game Avalanche (1978). Kaboom! was programmed by Larry Kaplan with David Crane coding the graphics for the buckets and Mad Bomber. It was the last game designed by Kaplan for Activision, who left the company shortly after it was released. The game was later ported by Paul Wilson for the Atari 5200 system. Critical reception of the game commended its graphics, particularly those of the Mad Bomber, whose expression changed based on the player's performance. Reception was mixed towards the game's simplicity, with some critics praising it as a change of pace from games like Asteroids (1979) or Space Invaders (1978), while others found it lacking in variety and complexity. Retrospective reviews were more positive with it being praised for its simple and addictive action qualities and being among the best games released by Activision during its early era. The game sold over one million cartridges and was one of the best-selling Atari 2600 games. Following its release, cartridges with gameplay similar to Kaboom! were released for the Atari 2600 such as Lost Luggage (1982) and Eggomania (1983). A follow-up to Kaboom!, titled Kaboom!: The Return of the Mad Bomber, was shown at the 1991 Summer Consumer Electronics Show for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but never released.

Text license: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Details

Type

Game

Release date

January 1, 1981

Genres

action game

Platforms

Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit family

Created by

Activision

Countries

United States