As the
developers themselves admit, this title was heavily based on the Indiana Jones
adventures. As the game starts, you’re immediately chased by a giant boulder,
just like in the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of The Lost Ark.
Developed
by Core Design and published, in 1989, by Firebird Software, it was available
for the greatest machines of the time: Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, PC,
Amstrad CPC and the ZED X Spectrum. This was the first original game created by
Core Design who later became famous for the success of their Tomb Raider franchise.
Thinking of that, is Rick Dangerous the biological father of Lara Croft?..
Hummmm…
Part time
hero and stamp collector, Rick Dangerous is hunger for adventure. Set in 1945,
he hears a rumor about a lost tribe somewhere on the Amazon jungle. He plans
his trip and, moments before landing, something went wrong with the airplane. A
normal thing to happen when you travel air-penguin! Rick’s plane crash lands in
the jungle right in the spot where the tribe was supposed to be lost! The Goolu
people felt somewhat disturbed by the wreckage and starts hunting the
adventurer down. Between all the mayhem, Rick Dangerous manages to get some
ammo for his gun and also some dynamite to give the natives a taste of hell!
There are four
levels of constant action and peril where Rick must avoid, at all costs, the
hostile natives and countless traps. A good feature, kind of unique at the
time, is the presence of reset points scattered throughout each level, so, if
you lose a life, you won’t have to start the level all over again. Sadly, on
the other hand, there’s no save option or a password that you could use later
to pick up where you left off.
Level two
is set in Egypt. Don’t know how he managed to travel from the Amazon jungle to
this pyramid.. maybe there was a portal of some kind, just like in the ancient
astronauts theory by Erich Von Daniken and one of its greatest supporter,
Giorgio Tsoukalos.
After
getting through the pyramid’s traps and foes, Rick sets off to recue some
allied soldiers that are being kept in Castle Schwarzendumpf, a dangerous Nazi
stronghold. Rick is able to jump and climb and can also carry a limited amount
of ammo. Always remember that most of the traps that can kill you can also be
used against the enemy! It’s very useful when you’re out of ammo.
After
rescuing all soldiers, they tell us that the Nazis are planning a missile
attack on London, so Rick has to infiltrate their secret missile base. If he
successfully completes this last mission, Rick returns to London finding that
the city is under attack by aliens! And this is the premise for its second
installment: Rick Dangerous 2, released a year later, in 1990, that I
personally didn’t enjoy much.
Back to
Rick Dangerous One, and now examining the whole package, there’s a huge
discrepancy between the cover art and the game’s cartoonish approach. Even the
artwork on the instructions booklet is totally different from the box art.
There was also an eight page comic book that introduces Rick and works as an
intro to the game. As we can see, the original idea was to make a more serious
game with Rick dangerously close to the Indiana Jones character.
To
conclude, Rick Dangerous is a brilliant game that combines humorous graphics
and devious gameplay. There are plenty of horrible shocks and surprises – when
you think the coast is clear, a poisoned dart whizzes out of a hole in the wall
or spikes pop up from the ground. There are also moving blocks, traps to puzzle
out and pallets of angry enemies to dodge.
Graphical
differences apart, Rick Dangerous plays identical on all formats and machines.
Try it! You
won’t regret it!
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