PONG - A REVIEW BY _RUNELANCER
Story
Pong follows a story set in stone ever since the days of primitive unicellular life: competition. Survival of the
fittest. A concept somewhat primitive yet so entirely inherant to ANY game that, being the main theme of Pong,
it becomes without a doubt anything BUT primitive. For this, it gains major points.

However, character developpement is lacking. There is very little information available on the two competing paddles
but one can assume they are rivals. However, this could be false: maybe they are merely being pitted against
each other against their will. Perhaps Pong is actually a strange mating ritual amongst paddles.
As for the ball, it remains as enigmatic as the paddles themselves:
what DO we know about it? Perhaps it is merely an entity left to challenge the paddles? To force them to compete?

What I do gather of the storyline is this: the ball, in its malevolent evilness, decides for some reason that the
two paddles should fight each other. Yet the paddles are no enemies and, being of the same race, have no intention
in competing. The ball then forces them into mortal combat, throwing itself against one of them (this can be seen
in the opening scene, as it launches from the middle of the screen towards a paddle seemingly out of nowhere). The battle rages on, and it won't stop until only one paddle is left standing.

A very good concept that could blow all other games out of the water, if only it had a little more character
developement...
5/10


Music/Sound
The music is absent. However, the sound: marvelous. Truly fantastic. My favorite is truly the "Bloop" sound that is played when the left paddle and the ball meet. Very, very intense and emotional.

It's obvious that Pong's music cannot be rated. But the sound effects are well-chosen, powerful, and honestly, they just rock. I don't think there's much else to say, save praise the power and energy put into the "Bloop" and "Bleep" sounds the game showcases. Both are very realistic and are played at key moments during the game: it's all about the timing!

Very powerful...
9/10


Graphics Clean and to the point. The paddles are perfect in their design, being white boards of a perfectly rectangular nature: no flaws at all. I have yet to see any artist design something THAT perfect in a game. The ball appears a little jagged but this only enforces the threat it poses to our two competing paddles.

The contrast between the objects on the field (white) and the background (black) is startling yet has such inherant simplicity, one can only ask themselves "Why haven't I thought of that?" It's awesome. Wow.

The power of Pong's graphics cannot simply be expressed by still images: the animation is equally stunning. One the real arcade machines, the fluorescent monitor often leaves a white trail behind the ball and paddles as the phosphorous layer fails to refresh fast enough, giving a PERFECT motion-blur effect NO amount of pixel-shading could ever hope to even emulate. The movement is fluid, realistic, and quite deserving of a lot of praise.
9/10


Replay Value Even today, Pong is played by many. Simple in its design, it never lets the gamer down. At all.

One could play Pong for hours on end, never knowing where the ball's mischief will send it careening wildly. The game is as unpredictable as heck and the CPU truly masters its side of the field. This is a game that will keep challenging even the most daring gamer for hours on end.

And boy, trust me, will you ever be playing a long time... Lovely game. Sadly, the lack of unlockable features was somewhat of a let-down.
7/10

AVERAGE: 7.5/10
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