Genre: Dungeon Crawl
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari

Dandy fans from the Atari 8-bit days will take one look at Dark Chambers and feel right at home; the 7800 enables an angled, 3/4 overhead look, and the enemies and player take the form of well animated sprites this time around, while the overall aesthetic clearly came from the same source of inspiration.

The title screen theme song is about as sophisticated as the 2600-vintage sound chip can get-- but it does the trick, with a hauntingly mood-setting melody! There is no music during play, but the game's sound effects-- such as when eating food, or accidentally blasting open an infinite spawner-- are evocative.

Dark Chambers involves marching through alphabet-ordered levels, blasting enemies and their spawners while scooping up treasure, powerups, and keys-- just like its predecessor, Dandy, and Dandy's "Gauntlet" clones. The player moves a bit too slowly given the expanses of the levels, but there is a two player simultaneous mode, and all-important diagonal fire is easy thanks to the 7800 controller.

With three difficulty levels and mood to burn, Dark Chambers is a fun party piece to play with a willing friend. It can be a bit ponderous due to the player's slow movement speed, but the well-drawn and variety-filled stages combined with superbly animated ghoulies make up for it.