Short Order/Eggsplode

Overview

Short Order/Eggsplode is two games on a single cartridge, offering not only a unique opportunity to dig out and unfold a Power Pad, but also - as the package is careful to note - Family Fun.

Short Order

Short Order is a Simon-style memory game in which the player prepares tall, perfectly vertical burgers for a variety of anthropomorphic animal diners ranging in girth from mouse to pig. Each desires their signature burger: Dog Burger, Pig Burger, Mouse Burger, etc., Burgers are composed of meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes; each of these is assigned a pair of Power Pad buttons, and the player stacks up the burger by jumping on those pair.

• 1-2 adds a meat patty to the burger;
• 3-4 adds cheese;
• 5-6 adds tomato;
• 7-8 adds lettuce.

As in Simon, the diner spells out a sequence of ingredients (as the little animal avatar jumps around an on-screen representation of the Power Pad to demonstrate). Repeat this sequence exactly, and another appears; same as the last one, but with one new ingredient added to the end. This goes on until three mistakes are made, which makes steam shoot out of the animal's ears. Alternatively, the player will eventually stack a burger tall enough to satisfy them, which makes the burger fly up into the air, land in the animal's waiting mouth and, after a few seconds of chewing, annihilate their metabolism, causing them to balloon into an amusing shape.

The game also scores the player with points reduced for every mistake made while stacking the burger. At the time of writing there is no leaderboard support.

Eggsplode!

Eggsplode is a less awkward adaptation of the Power Pad input. The player is the caretaker of a chicken coop containing a dozen hens, arranged so that each hen corresponds to a button on the Power Pad. This coop is under assault by multiple foxes who are attempting to sabotage the farmer's livelihood by planting big round cartoon bombs under the chickens, which the player disarms by stepping on the chicken's button. After a certain number of bombs have been safely removed, the level is completed, and the game advances to another level with a faster pace and a larger number of bombs to disarm. If a bomb explodes, the game ends as the now-featherless, smoldering chicken flaps around.

In the midst of this assault, the chickens continue to lay eggs. Step on an egg and the chicken gets very angry (again with the steam coming out of the ears) and the foxes laugh. Step on three eggs and the game is over. Also, the dog from Short Order is running around the coop, probably just trying to help, but sometimes he switches eggs in for bombs, often at the wrong moment.

This game can be enjoyed by as many people as can comfortably fit on the Power Pad at once. As far as anyone knows, it keeps going until all the player's lives are lost.