K-Razy Shoot-Out

Name:	K-Razy Shoot-out
Company:	CBS Electronics
Model #:	4L 2712
Programmers:	Dr. Keith Dreyer & Torre Meeder
Year:	1983
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Original game programmed by K-Byte

There are good clones out there and there are bad clones.  Then there are games that are simply out and out copy other games without any change to gameplay.  K-Razy Shoot-Out Falls into this category.  An out and out Berzerk copy, K-Razy Shoot-Out took a good game and made it average.

As with Berzerk, the goal of K-Razy Shoot-Out (their spelling, not mine) is to destroy all the robots in each room before time runs out.  However whereas in Berzerk running out of time would incur the wrath of Evil Otto, K-Razy Shoot-Out ends the game.  That's right, not even a K-Razy version of Otto (K-Razy Otto?).

Besides being Otto free, K-Razy Shoot-Out has other problems that make it decidedly average.  Movement and shooting are a bit stuff and rigid, the sound is almost nonexistent, and the graphics show little if any improvements over Berzerk.  Another annoying little feature of K-Razy Shoot-Out is that all the robots do not appear in the room at once, meaning that they will randomly appear to replace the ones you kill.  This wouldn't be so bad if they didn't have the annoying habit of appearing right on top of you.  This leads to many frustrating and unavoidable deaths.

K-Razy Shoot-Out does have a few good points however.  Each time your man is hit he falls over and dies with a cute little animation, after this your next man bravely marches onto the screen.  There's also a cute maze 'de-rezzing' effect at the end of each level, which is worth seeing at least once.  The game is also quite rare, so it is a valuable collectors item.  Then there's the... err... umm... Did I mention that it's rare?

While it may not be the best game on the 5200, K-Razy Shoot-Out certainly isn't the worst.  Since the 5200 already had a wonderful version of Berzerk available, K-Razy Shoot-Out can be be described as 'unnecessary'.  The lack of in-game speech (which was one of the highlights of Berzerk) doesn't help much either.  Unless you're a collector you're much better off tracking down a copy of Berzerk than this decidedly average clone.  Evil Otto will be waiting for you...

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