When it landed in arcades in 1972, Pong wasn't the first video game ever made – but Atari certainly based it on the game that was. There's a strong argument to be made that Pong needs a modern revamp more than any other gaming classic.
But not like this. Not like PONG Quest. It's far from unusual to splice RPG elements into a hitherto unrelated game or genre, but PONG Quest's combination of simplistic virtual tennis with old-school adventuring never quite seems to gel. The undercooked execution simply doesn't justify such a left-field smooshing together.
The game adopts a suitably bright and breezy tone – one of its few smart moves – as you take control of an anthropomorphised paddle on a quest from a fickle king to gather four orbs... look, the story doesn't matter. It's standard fantasy video game guff. What it ultimately amounts to is an excuse to traipse through the four randomly-arranged floors on each of four distinctly themed dungeons. You'll take part in battles, encounter mini-game diversions, collect loot, tackle bosses, and level-up your character.
All of which sounds a lot like any other RPG – but the key difference lies in the battle system. Rather than take turns to hit one another, you'll take part in a good old game of bat-and-ball. There are RPG-inflected embellishments, of course. Each time the ball hits a paddle, it counts as an attack landed from the other party. Send the ball past your opponent, and you'll score a critical hit. Land one of these when your opponent's health is low, and you win the battle.
Special attacks come in the form of different types of ball, which are collected from downed enemies, bought from shops, found in treasure chests, and scooped up from battlegrounds. These stackable single-use balls are ostensibly quite varied, including various exotic bounce patterns, poison balls, those that temporarily halve the playing field, and even those that spawn a defensive centipede.
Activating these balls mid-battle can be tricky, as the game doesn't pause or slow the action one jot. You must quickly highlight the required ball with the shoulder buttons, then activate them with A – all while reacting to your rival's last shot. It becomes trickier as you level-up and increase the number of ball slots in your inventory. That's something you'll want to do pretty sharpish, as you'll very quickly grow frustrated by the sheer number of discarded balls you're leaving littered around the dungeons.
Indeed, you'll quickly realise that special balls are something to be used and even spammed rather than saved, while there are loads that prove to be of limited practical use. We quickly established that the bog-standard health-giving potion ball was by far the most important of all – an inevitability when every successful shot with your paddle is interpreted as a negative hit sustained. Perhaps a timed button hit to 'parry' the shot would have been in order here?
It would certainly have livened up the staid Pong formula a little. As it stands, perhaps PONG Quest's biggest flaw is that the game of Pong at its heart feels so overfamiliar and wooden. There's a woolly disconnect between the Joy-Con/Pro Controller stick and your paddle, with a certain degree of analogue range, but not enough to enable you to make those last-minute lunges for a fast-angled ball. At the very least we would have liked a risky 'move fast' button, but the developer has placed all its eggs in the 'special balls basket'. The core action feels dull and one-note as a result.
Moving through the game's randomised yet repetitive dungeons is similarly uninspiring. The layouts are extremely basic, a series of single-screen, largely empty rooms patrolled by a sparse selection of enemy paddles. Each of these has its own attack tendencies, and you'll soon identify the ones to avoid on a given run. One particular regal stooge in the second dungeon, for example, spams the hateful mushroom ball, which led us to try and dash past them at every opportunity.
Indeed, simply moving through the dungeons in PONG Quest soon feels like a total chore to be endured rather than explored. We're glad that you're offered the choice of running rather than fighting, but when such a choice becomes deeply preferable (other than to gain experience points and level up), it's a bit of a bad sign.
PONG Quest's world design is bright and colourful, and we like that it never takes itself seriously. But it's also perhaps too stripped back for its own good, without a clearly defined sense of character. There's something vaguely amateurish about some of it, like it's a fan-made indie game rather than a mainstream resurrection of one of the most recognisable properties in gaming.
In fact, just about the most fun you can have with PONG Quest is the local multiplayer mode, and you could argue that this is simply Pong as it was designed to be played back in the early '70s. But there is the potential for four-player doubles here, and the various power-ups do seem to make more sense against flawed human opposition. There's online too, but who wants to play online Pong?
It all speaks to a generally slapdash and uninspired attempt to paddle fresh ideas out of the Pong formula. We're not saying that a Pong RPG couldn't work in principle. But it really needs to be knocked back and forth a bunch more times before it's ready for a critical hit.
Conclusion
Sparsely laid out, mechanically simplistic, and generally a bit of a bore to play, PONG Quest fails to do anything meaningful with this most neglected of gaming properties. The adventuring element is paper-thin, and even the game of bat-and-ball at the heart of its battle system feels flat and lifeless. As always with Pong, local multiplayer is your best bet for fun, but there's little that's fresh about that.
Comments 36
I’d still buy it for a dollar
That's shame. I like the idea of old games being modernized. I thought Centipede and Spy Hunter on 3ds were pretty good! I wonder if Joust, Defender or Tempest can be modernized.
When I first saw this game, I thought, "who is this for?" It seems designed to cash in on Pong nostalgia, but who has Pong nostalgia? I'm almost 40 years old, and Pong is before MY time! Who are the 50-somethings out there looking to indulge their childhood love of Pong with an...RPG?
I had really hoped this would be funny and a worthy challenge. :-/
The only thing I kept thinking when looking at this game was Caddicarus’s video on Breakout for the PS1, featuring RECTANGLES WITH EYES. https://youtu.be/cBiteEoFJdw It’s only a matter of time before he covers Quest featuring RECTANGLE WITH FACES.
Hmm, there is something about this game that appeals to me (I'll be damned if I know what it is tho lol!) I'll probably grab this at some point. If for no there reason than it's good to play something naff once in a while to help you appreciate the good in other games lol.
@LunarFlame17 Yep, thought the same thing.
I mean, Pong is famous for historical reasons, but it's not like some later arcade classics, like Galaga, Breakout, Pacman, or Tetris, which people still play because they're fundamentally good. Pong didn't have that much to compete against in the early 70s...
Give this to the guys who made What the Golf. Take pong off on a wild adventure with short glimpses into many different variations. I’d play that.
I put 10 hours into the story mode and beat it. I liked it okay, but it started to get really tedious and annoying at the end. There were just way too many enemies in the dungeons, and switching balls was easier when I didn't have 10 of them to choose from. (Granted, the upgrade that allows you to carry more balls is optional. I just didn't realize it was going to make the game more frustrating to play.)
It's worth noting that a few critics liked the game. I've seen a couple of 8s and a 9, but I guess those publications aren't good enough for MetaCritic, lol. I'm not trying to recommend the game, though. Definitely not for everyone. But if the concept interests you, it might be worth a look if you can get it cheap enough.
Still gonna grab this on a deep discount. I'm the weirdo that really wanted this. Shame it didnt turn out better.
Pong is not a classic. It was a proof of concept and a product of its time; and Pong Quest is a laughably pathetic attempt by Atari to cash in on its historical status rather than on the strength of product/concept itself. If people wanted to play tennis in video game form, there are far better options available elsewhere.
Is it any wonder that Atari has since been completely irrelevant for decades? It was stupid decisions not unlike this one that lead to the industry crashing in the 80s.
The irony is that Nintendo, the company that once picked up the pieces of Atari's bad business decisions, is now accommodating yet another one of Atari's uninspired offerings decades later.
How Atari is still in business?
Atari needs to die, remember that the current Atari has nothing to do with the old Atari that made the classic arcades and consoles, it's just a company that used to be called Infogrames and bought the Atari names and franchises and decided to call themselves that, it's just like those stories where a superhero dies and someone else takes his name to be his successor, but current Atari is a disgrace.
It depresses me that Munch’s Oddysee scored lower than this just the other day..
They should've done something similar to Pac-Man: Championship Edition. Take the original game but add a modern, stylistic look to it and make the gameplay similar to the original while being fresh. Change enough, but not too much.
I am presumably the target demographic; I had Pong on my Atari 2600 in 1982, and loved it at the time. However, I don't feel the need to replay it, or especially a loose spin-off turning this basic reflex based game into an RPG. Pass.
So this is what Atari is making these days? Sad!
I mean, it still looks like an enjoyable time so I'll probably get it on discount.
@AlexOlney "Stop, stop, he's already dead!"
I’ll grab it at a discount just to mess with it. $15 is too much to ask for this. $5 tops. And by the way folks a lot of those “bad decisions” the old Atari made back then were not made by Atari but we’re instead made and forced upon them by the suits at Warner Communications...like the terrible ET decision, as an example, to give Spielberg $23 million Cash for the license and give a measly 5 months for Howard Scott Warshaw to program it was ridiculous and hence the result. Warner also operated Atari with the mindset that the 2600 would last forever. The absolute worst thing that happened to Atari was Bushnell selling it to Warner in the first place.
@RPGamer Pog moment
But if it weren't released from Atari it would get more praise.
@Averagewriter of course all of your points I’m completely aware of growing up as a big Atari fan - I just didn’t want my post to be super lengthy lol. Of course Kassar was an idiot yes. And Warner just had no clue how to run a technology company though Nolan tried his best to make them understand. All of that talent that left Atari was because of Kasser yes & instead he replaced them with more marketing people unnecessarily.
Oh I’m certainly not blaming Nolan, He definitely needed the Cash capital to manufacture the 2600 no doubt hence the sale. I’m just saying IF he didn’t sell who knows? Maybe The Old Atari would still be around today in some form. I think that maybe even Atari engineers also would’ve eventually figured out some sort of Lock-out technology. But of course as it happened that credit and foresight goes to Nintendo. Another interesting nugget is Nintendo was actually in discussions with atari to market and distribute the NES in America...that obviously never happened as by that time Atari was such a mess during negotiations that Nintendo decided to go solo. Of course along with ET disaster you can add in Atari’s crappy 2600 Pac-Man port which was terrible and their own internal doing. The irony in THAT decision though was while they let designers like David Crane and the other guys go form Activision & Imagic, they paid Todd Frye like $2 million for designing 2600 Pac-Man! Strange to me. But my oh my how things may have been different today. Hard Business lessons were learned all around I’m sure, especially Nintendo who studied the Atari disaster very very closely and helped them achieve massive success. ☺️
"There's a strong argument to be made that Pong needs a modern revamp more than any other gaming classic."
Not sure if the argument can truly be made, but it already has one. Pong Knock Out, a 4 player arcade machine that is pretty much 3D Pong. The "ball" is a cube on top of a magnet that freely slides across the board and 4 players try to put the "ball" into the goals, same as regular Pong. It's simple, yes, but if you get a good group going, it's quite fun.
@Silly_G @Averagewriter
So is the consensus simply that Pong isn't a good game anymore? You can't deny that Atari made quite the attempt to revitalize it.
Everything, including this, about modern Atari lacks soul (for a lack of a better world), I think EA games have more soul and charm put into them (even the annualized sports games).
Only exception is Tempest 4000.
A shame. Really liked the updated pong on the ps1. Weird levels and pinguins. Still play it at times on my Vita
Oh jack tramiel wasn’t just an idiot. He run commodore quite well for a time. Bit then everything got weird. And atari’s home computers were quite nice. But not as nice as the amiga. (Which was quite succesfulnhere in europe. But bot statesside)
@Toy_Link What is "soul" to you, and how does EA (and others) excel at that and not Atari?
I was really hoping this to be another Puzzle Quest style sleeper hit.
I was born with Pong... literally that was made when I was and it was the first home console game I ever played in the 70s. For the few of you who were around back then, you know there is something to be said about the wonder of controlling something that is on your TV for the first time... it was fascinating to say the least! Pong was a pioneer in its day that entertained many, many people and as new games continued to roll out (Atari Pac-Man was my next game, for instance), the fascination just grew with seeing these “amazing” graphics and novel concepts for this newfangled video gaming thing. I understand that MY demographic is not the dominant one in the industry today, but for those of us who did have the pleasure of enjoying video games from day 1, this new version of Pong is a fun trip back in history while going forward at the same time. I do wish more games would come out like this but they MUST include somewhere within it the original game too, for nostalgia!
They could've made Pong Battle Royale. It worked for Tetris.
@Dog
I'd describe soul as something filled with personality and has its own unique style. Most of modern Atari's games feel like they were made by committee and rushed out to cash into a hot trend. This game really reminds me of those mobile games you see on Instragram ads...
well without the Engrish.
Sega (non-Sonic games) and Capcom, can still make games oozing with tons of personality, but I consider most of EA game's pretty generic. Though at least they can churn out something like the Simpsons Game or Star Wars Fallen Order from time to time.
@KoopaTheGamer : Taito has been doing that with Space Invaders over the years (they even released a collection on Switch with some stupidly expensive special editions, though that remains exclusive to Japan) and Tetris has been treated in more or less the same manner among other old franchises. While Namco has dabbled with attempts to broaden the concept of Pac-Man over the years, their efforts have been largely met with indifference.
There is little point in rocking the boat too much as simple gameplay concepts continue to hold up today, and not every game/brand needs to be a sprawling big budget open world epic or deviate from what made the original concept successful.
My main point of contention regarding new entries in these simplistic franchises though, is that they are often disproportionately expensive when considering the real-world costs, complexity, and expertise required to produce such games. Puyo Puyo Tetris, while a little cheaper than the average retail game, should not have cost as much as it did, for example. I still bought it and got my money's worth, but if they were to follow it up with a sequel, I would have second thoughts. Similarly, Super Bomberman R launched in Australia for AU$90! That's the same full retail price as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (though the latter was usually available on sale in stores) which instantly put me off, though I was initially keen on picking it up.
@rockodoodle There is a modernized version of "Defender" on GameCube, PS2, and X-Box. It's pretty good.
I think your review is wrong , I have this game and it’s pure fun and very 😁
I liked it. Whatever.
The real successor to pong was Atari 2600 Warlords. A multi-player evolution of pong/breakout to short 4-player multiplayer battles with AI handling the non-human players was really fun.
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