Journey Escape Longplay (Atari 2600 Game) - Warning: Contains Flashing Lights!
- Journey Escape Longplay (Atari 2600 Game) - Warning: Contains Flashing Lights! -
Journey Escape is an Atari 2600 game released in 1982 by Data Age, inspired by the popular rock band Journey. The game's premise is simple: you guide the band members as they try to escape from a concert venue and reach their scarab spaceship, which is featured on the Escape album cover. You have to do this within a time limit, all while dodging obstacles like photographers, stage barriers, and overzealous "groupies" that try to slow you down. To make things a bit easier, "roadies" can appear to grant temporary invincibility, helping you power through the obstacles.
One of the game's standout features is the chiptune version of Journey's hit song "Don't Stop Believin’," which plays during your escape. For fans of Journey, this musical tie-in might be a fun novelty. However, despite the cool concept, the game itself didn’t really do much for me. The gameplay is pretty repetitive, mostly involving dodging the same types of obstacles over and over again. The graphics and sound, while typical for the Atari 2600, aren't particularly impressive, and the whole experience feels a bit shallow.
In the end, Journey Escape seems more like a piece of 1980s pop culture memorabilia than a game you'd want to come back to. It's a fun nod to Journey’s popularity at the time, but as a game, it doesn’t offer much beyond that initial novelty.
PS. Once you guide every band member to their scarab spaceship, the game restarts from the beginning. I beat it three times, but I didn’t start the fourth loop and just ended the video.
#retrogamingloft #journeyescape #atari2600