Title:

  • BurgerTime

Genre:

  • Arcade

Developer:

  • Data East

Publisher:

  • Bally Midway (Arcade), Data East (NES)

Release Date:

  • 1982 (original arcade), May 1987 (NES)

On Wikipedia:

System:

  • See Wikipedia

Box Art Credit:

  • eBay

BurgerTime was one of the golden age arcade games by Bally Midway (one of the big manufacturers at the time) that was brought over from Japan (the original Japanese name being Hamburger) and was one of the smaller hits of the arcade era, involving platforms, ladders, and running around trying to walk over hamburger patties before getting boxed in by enemies, namely, the pickle, the fried egg, and the sausage. It was no Pac-Man or Donkey Kong and certainly more successful than the sadly out-of-print High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, Second Edition makes it seem, comparing it to Atari's Food Fight. It was one of the games that Mattel Electronics secured rights to for home console and computer releases and promoted it heavily for Intellivision with a memorably goofy commercial.

It's not the best screenshot but it is mine. The hamburger patties are green likely for contrast reasons.

Additionally, Mattel Electronics had a license to produce some sequels. It never ported the arcade sequel Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory, instead commissioning their French offices to make PizzaTime (also never released)...though in 1987 Mattel Electronics' successor company INTV Corporation released Diner. I remember playing BurgerTime on the NES, which Data East ported and released themselves through their American subsidiary Data East USA. INTV ironically couldn't get the NES rights due to restrictions on their licensees making games for other systems (though INTV would become a NES licensee, if briefly, releasing Monster Truck Rally for the NES.)

BurgerTime over time got a bunch of re-releases and other titles, generally running the gamut from average to terrible, and never really broke out of its shell. Donkey Kong had "Donkey Kong '94" which evolved into Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Country and even Pac-Man tried with stuff like Pac-in-Time and Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, even if they didn't do so well. BurgerTime would stay BurgerTime, even after Data East went bankrupt in 2003 and its assets were purchased by G-Mode.

BurgerTime for the NES isn't perfect because the NES port runs faster than the arcade game (plus the arcade version has deeper, richer colors), which makes it harder. BurgerTime Deluxe, despite being a Game Boy (original) game is a much better title, anyway.

FINAL RATING:   

Back...