Warning: games may look more entertaining than they actually are.
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Camerica
DEVELOPER: Codemasters
GENRE: Action/adventure
RELEASE DATE: 1991
If Quattro Adventure has
taught me anything, it's that one should always be frightened by American/European multi-carts. Play with caution.
Linus
Spacehead
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This
is the prequel to the stand-alone game Linus
Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade
and, let me just say, I can't believe the world contains two Linus
Spacehead games
(Lord help us if I find out there are more). Linus Spacehead is a
poorly designed, visually unappealing character and that's the least
of his worries. All he can do is jump badly and avoid enemies. He
can't punch, he can't shoot guns or lasers, he can't handle
weaponry of any kind.
The main character of any platformer should be able to wield some
sort of death-bringing item, but if he can't, what happens? Each
level is bland, short, and brings with it unfulfillment and illwill
towards mankind. Linus
Spacehead
is absolutely worthless.
F
Super
Robin Hood
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Robin Hood smokes some opium, doffs
his cap, plays his lute, collects a hundred rings, and becomes Super
Robin of Hood. Too bad he's
locked in the dungeons of Nottingham Castle, armed only with his bow
and arrow. Collect the treasure in the dungeon to... escape? Collect
treasure for the sake of getting rich? Robin Hood controls decently,
but exploring the dungeon feels like a crapshoot. Keys open up paths
the second you collect them, but if you don't keep track of every
barrier, you can quickly become lost. Super Robin Hood
is no Linus Spacehead,
thank the good King Richard, but it's nothing to get excited about
either. One question: after the Sheriff of Nottingham locked (Super)
Robin Hood in the depths of Nottingham Castle, I wonder if he
cackled, "Where's your merry men now, Hood?"
C-
Boomerang
Kid
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If this so-called "Boomerang
Kid"'s shtick is boomerangs, wouldn't it stand to reason that
the kid actually uses boomerangs? Well, push those thoughts of logic
directly out of your brain. Boomerang Kid collects
boomerangs in one-screen stages of suck-ulence. Much like Jumpman in
the original Donkey Kong,
if Boomerang Kid plummets more than a couple inches, he dies. If he
touches anything, he dies. No weapons, just like Linus
Spacehead. Even after you
collect the boomerangs, you can't use 'em. So... they're just gonna
hang on a wall as a mantel piece? Not in my house.
F
Treasure
Island Dizzy
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Dizzy the Egg, Linus Spacehead, Boomerang Kid, Super Robin
Hood. It is clear to me that Codemasters desperately wants a mascot,
yet continues to find itself unsatisifed with their creations
(despite unleashing them on the public with wanton recklessness).
Dizzy is probably my second least favorite Codemasters character next
to Spacehead, but at least his games feel somewhat realized. Treasure
Island Dizzy, like the other Dizzies, is a bright
exploratory adventure that has the egg analyzing his surroundings,
picking up items, and avoiding anything and everything that might
give him a good crack. At least Dizzy's inability to use a weapon
makes a slight amount of sense. He was built to investigate, to
reason, not to destroy. Treasure Island Dizzy isn't
eggs-cellent, but it's the best game on this doomed Adventure.
C+
I rather enjoyed this post for some reason. It's sad but I think crummy games make for the most amusing reviews and this is four crummy games in one! Codemasters sure ended up with egg on it's face with this one. Har har.
ReplyDeleteIt's true. As much as I hate games like this, bile spews forth easier than praise.
ReplyDeleteQuattro Arcade is much better of course, but these games aren't THAT bad. However, I will say I think you've unfairly appraised Dizzy. He actaully WAS Codemaster's main mascot, and while they're known for making (mostly good) unlicensed NES games, their main market was games for home computers, most especially Amiga. There is a long running Dizzy series on Amiga, of which home consoles got a few ports (including NES's own gem "Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy"). The games, in general, are meant to be platformer/puzzlers, hence the reason you get various items you have to use for specific things at specific points. Treasure Island Dizzy is short and not the best in the series, so hardly anything to judge him by.
ReplyDeleteBut I honestly would love to see a new (refined) Dizzy game. In fact the co-creators of the series, Codemasters themselves, as well as the Oliver Twins (the actual creative force behind the game) have expressed interest in getting together to do a new, 3D Dizzy game, however they say they'd only want to do it if it could be big budget and big on par with some of the bigger 3D platform games like Mario or Jak & Daxter. And they've apparently never found a publisher willing to help make that happen...so....yup.
Quattro Adventure isn't GREAT, but it's okay. And Dizzy himself, and most of the games in his series, are rather good, I must say.