Jaleco 1982
This game seems to have somehow become a popular insult in #mame as of late(just ask JoseQ about that one, and it doesn't take much playing to figure out why. In a nutshell, you pop balloons, and avoid enemies, who you can, well.... flame. Sure, at first the concept of giving a mouse a flamethrower sounds like it might be turned into a workable concept in theory, but as is the case with a lot of games that eventually become reviews on emu websites, one has to wonder exactly what the developers were smoking when they managed to come up with this schlock.
The basic idea, as was stated above is to pop the ballons, and flame the enemies, hence the name Pop Flamer. Of course, if you flamed the balloons and popped the enemies, then you'd have Flame Popper, or something like that, which would be an even dorkier name than Pop flamer, so if you played it you'd get deep emotional scars or something like that from being subjected to such crummy videogames as a kid and... *WHACK!!!!* Thanks, I needed that. Anyway, as I was trying to say before I started rambling, you pop the balloons, flame the enemies, and try to drink the soda pop thingies (or who knows just what strange, unusual, and probably not very legal stuff could be inside those bottles?) at the top and bottom of the screen, which proceed to turn the baddies into graphics glitches (I'm not sure if this is an emu bug or if the game was really this bad, see the picture below) and suck them into oblivion when drunk. A round is cleared when all of the balloons are popped, and you are rewarded with something vaguely resembling music that has the unusual effect of an inexplicable desire to hit the escape key.
One who has read this review this far down probably has the idea that I consider this game just slightly less entertaining than a root canal without anasthesia, and you are pretty much right about that. The graphics look about typical for 1982, and while adequate for the purpose, still manage to barely escape looking CGA in appearance. I think the gameplay (or lack thereof) has already been adequately documented above. The sound quality of this game ranks somewhere in between that of a Jackhammer and a microwaved Hanson CD. And other glitches in the game seem to indicate that the emulation is still a little bit off (as of .33b4) so unless you're looking for canned insults to use next time you stop by #mame, flee screaming from this one.
Rating (1-10 scale):
Gameplay:3
Graphics:2
Sound:0
Controls: 5
Emulation:5
Overall: 2.3