Kickman

I never really had very many cartridges games for the old Commodore 64, but one that got a lot of play at my house was Kickman.

Kickman, like a lot of the video games in the early 80’s, has a plot that manages to be both simple and borderline insane. You play as the Kickman, a French unicyclist, in France, and above you is a grid of balloons that kind of looks like Space Invaders. These balloons randomly fall toward the ground and you have to catch, stack, and pop them on your head before they hit the ground. If you can’t maneuver quick enough, you have the ability to kick the balloons back into the air to try again, but if they hit the ground, you lose.

Later levels have you stacking the balloons in ever taller stacks on your head, giving you less time to catch balloons and testing your ability to keep balloons airborne. You’ll also notice that some of the balloons eventually get replaced with yellow and blue Pac-Man-like characters that will eat the growing stack of balloons on your head.

Just be aware, the theme song will stay with you for a while after you quit playing.

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