Ok, This game wont win any awards, that is for sure. And as this is a Gauntlet type game it is kinda pale in 4 colours compared to its 16 colours and came out a year before this
one. Dandy only has 15 levels (+3 bonus levels). Of cause Dandy dont have level-skipping so that does make it a bit more equal in game time at least. Graphics is a bit more
detailed than Gauntlet thanks to the use of Mode 1.
Second, let me apologuise for the length of the video .. its actually one of my very first attempts. Some of the detours i do is on purpose tho (need keys). The reason i upload this
early version is that further attemps pretty much all failed due to the massive bugs.
Gameplay: Picking up spells to help you is mostly useless as its randomly gives you either paralize (Doh! most of the enemies dont move anyway), confused (as they arnt already that) and Wipe (this one is extremely usefull of cause, but as you only have a 1/3 chance of it happening .. ).
Running fast thru the mazes is needed as you loose health with time. Kinda silly as with only 15 levels you really want to take your time and explore the mazes instead. Also what
it the point if you dont have the time to stay and kill the "enemy-spawn houses" ?? After every 5 levels you get a bonus level filled with treasure. This is really nice as you can exchange treasure for more health to stay alive.
Enemies are fairly dim and dont change in difficulty or design at all. Most of them arnt moving either so most of the time you just concentrate on "digging" a route past em.
Two Player co-up: Is the games one saving grace. Game gets a lot harder too as you need to share the loot/health and you can hit each other. Going from map to map is done when both players exit the same exit, so you cant split up. This works pretty well for most, but there is some spots where the level design makes it "uncomfortable" close to you being stuck trying to go the same way.
Bugs: is what really drags down this game. So many of them. Most are noticeable is the odd spawn point where you end up inside a wall or "enemy lair" or enemy. The most annoing bug is the "portal" bug. Also as you dont port onto the next portal (but slightly to one of the sides of the portal) you can get stuck. Sometimes the game just freezes up when you enter a portal too.
Lots of fairly harmless bugs too (like you cant shoot a enemy standing at a exit or graphics errors when using spells or enemy lair only half empties).
The bonus level timer: Why is it even there? Odd useless timer for no reason at all or?
The game "ending": what exactly is supposed to happen at the final lvl i donno. Ive played both the tape and the disc version (and on 2 different emulators .. emulating both 464 and 6128) and they all end the same pretty much.
There disc version is shown here where you enter the final room in the bonus lvl and the whole thing start flashing and goes into a slow grind. Tape version does exacly the same
flashing but the "press play" message used to show between level starts flashing (unhealthly unnormal) too. It dosnt start the tape or anything and in both versions you can exit the room and go back to the bonus stage if you want.
All in all: Playable but feels very unfinished.
By Activision 1986
Негізгі бет Ойындар Dandy - Amstrad CPC
Пікірлер: 14