Thanks to Flying Tiger Entertainment for the review code

Title: Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Super Burgertime
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $7.99
Release Date: 05/17/2018

Story

In this port of the obscure second sequel to Burgertime, you must take control of Peter Pepper Jr as he sets out to stop an evil chef from doing bad things… And being the fourth in the Johnny Turbo Arcade line, that means you get the basics from the lineup, too.

Presentation

Following the trend from Gate of Doom and Sly Spy, Super Burgertime is presented via the same Johnny Turbo Arcade wrapper that was used for the three previous titles. This means you get the same assortment of display options and filters as before, along with the option to make a save state. Regarding the game itself, it’s a very colorful take on the original Burgertime and the sequel Peter Pepper’s Ice Cream Factory, sporting new 16-bit graphics and a lot more pop that looks really sharp when displayed in the 4:3 aspect ratio. The music also happens to be very cheery and a joy to listen to, with cute sound effects like horn honks playing whenever you stun an enemy.

Gameplay

Super Burgertime changes a few rules from the original game, but for the most part things stay consistent, with the main goal of each stage tasking the player to push all the burger parts from the multiple layers of the stage all the way to the bottom, while stunning enemies with your pepper shaker. Unlike the original, your pepper shaker isn’t limited by ammo, but rather by time, allowing you to use it infinitely within a short time limit before you become unarmed. Luckily, a friendly girl will hang new weapons on the sides of the stage for you to use, from a very handy frying pan, a long-reaching spatula to super jump boots. While the general runts such as the eggs and sausages will only take one hit to get stunned, other enemies including big leaves may take multiple hits, and even when you do kill an enemy they’ll just respawn immediately from a set spot.

Luckily, that’s where the burger layers come into play. In the original Burgertime, you simply had to walk over a piece for it to fall down to the next layer, and in that game if an enemy was trailing you then you could send it down for bonus points. In Super however, that mechanic is completely changed. Walking over a piece won’t do a thing, but stomping on it by pressing down and the attack button or jumping on it repeatedly will cause it to gradually push down until it falls. Enemies that are dragged down with the piece won’t award bonus points, but managing to crush them underneath the layer will add an extra one to the burger and give you a nice chunk of points, except for massive burgers where there’s not much of a reward to speak of.

When approaching the end of a set of stages, you’ll run into a boss right. These fights are very akin to the Data East game Tumblepop, as you simply go up the ladders and focus on attacking the boss with an infinite supply of burgers until it dies, dodging whatever it throws at you. These are by far the hardest part of the game, and in a way it can kinda make the game feel a bit unbalanced due to the shift in gameplay, but it isn’t too much of a hassle. Like previous Johnny Turbo Arcade titles, there are no DIP Switch or custom control options to speak of, which is still a big shame, although in the case of Super Burger Time I found the default settings to work really well, being mostly fair save for the aforementioned boss battles. Even better, you can add a friend to the mix for some local co-op fun!

Conclusion

In conclusion, Super Burgertime is a good serving of Arcade hi-score chasing goodness. Not letting your score stay intact when using continues, focusing on simplistic yet addictive strategies and overall just being a fun entry in the Burgertime series certainly makes this rare home port of the obscure sequel all the more worth a purchase. In fact, I think it’s by far the best quality title in the Johnny Turbo Arcade lineup so far, with the only real faults being the previously mentioned lack of DIP switches or online leaderboards. For $8, this is easily one of the best games to choose from if you want a good old-fashioned high score chaser for the Nintendo Switch, but it could have been even better.

I give Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Super Burgertime an 8 out of 10, and recommend it to all fans of the other Burgertime games, along with those looking for a good hi-score chaser to entertain yourself with.