Fast Food

THEY CALLED HIM MIGHTY MOUTH

- Lips...  floating in a void.  Lips that must EAT!  -

Food flies past at various speeds.  The lips are hungry, but woe to the lips who done et the purple pickles.  Six purple pickles, and the snack bar closes:

SCORING

A list of food, scored from lowest "calorie count" to highest:

• 1 = green pickle (You have to wonder why the lowest scoring item is shaped like the very thing the player is supposed to avoid.  Shouldn't it be high-scoring, to increase the risk that you screw up?)
• 3 = root beer
• 4 = cola
• 5 = soda pop (which is somehow different than the prior two)
• 5 = hot dog
• 6 = hamburger (there it is!!)
• 7 = ice cream bar
• 7 = milk shake
• 9 = ice cream cone
• 9 = french fries
• 10 = pizza
• 20 = cheeseburger (please don't make a new object category)

PROGRESSION

When you reach a certain score, the words "You're getting fatter" scroll down the screen, and the food rushes past at a faster rate, eventually making it difficult for the lips to avoid food.  Oh, the folly, lips!  First you wanted all the food in the world, and now you want to pick and choose.  Your greed shall be your undoing.

Every 500 points, one purple pickle is removed from the tally, prolonging the orgy.

CONTRIBUTIONS

The game has a pause feature, in that when the game tells you you're getting fatter, play does not progress until you press the action button.

The food scrolls from left to right instead of right to left.   Usually Western games (and films) tend to have the latter because the protagonist is usually on the left, facing the opposition which comes from the unexpected end of the screen, going "backward" relative to how Westerners read text.  Perhaps this is a comment on consumer culture?  Nah.

While encouraging high scores through mass consumption of junk food, at least the lips provide an early example of recycling in games (in that the lips eat the packet the fries come in, and eat the whole soda pop: cup, lid and straw).

HORRIFYING IMPLICATIONS

The lips are also purple, suggesting that the reason the lips must avoid the purple pickles is that they are related in some fashion:

Sources:

TheLegend2600 and AqualungGameReviews at Youtube

Game manual via AtariAge