Assassin [1992, Amiga] Review - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#36

TEAM 17, best known for their Worms franchise, was also responsible for other amazing titles like this one.

Developed in conjunction with Psionic Systems and released in 1992, Assassin’s plot is simple: infiltrate an high-tech underground fortress and kill the main villain – Midan.

In the process, there’s countless of genetically-engineered mutants that we must destroy in order to reach and conquer the main objective.

The programmers gave Assassin a number of friendly options: the ability to choose the number of lives – one, three or five – and the game’s difficulty – Rookie, Arcade or Ultimate. That way any player can try out Assassin and, even if this type of game isn’t your thing, you can really advance and be thrilled for doing so!

Five main levels awaits us and one final battle in the end with Midan himself.

We start off being dropped in a forest that surrounds Midan’s fortress. In this area the enemies are quite easy to engage and take down, but, as soon as you reach the construction zone, they will be alerted to your presence and tougher to kill. The third level is set in the missile control where Midan’s personal security guards are literally waiting for you and power-ups and bonuses are really scarce around here. Succeeding this you’ll find yourself in the genetic asylum, home of some nasty genetic experiments. I advise you to get out of this hostile place quickly! Those nasties are really hard to beat! Finally, right before you’re face to face with Midan, a final test awaits us: a maze-like warren of corridors and shafts filled with Arnie’s terminator-like endoskeletons and wall mounted laser cannons.

As an Amiga fan, Martyn Brown, founded Team 17 to make games that required 1Mb of RAM, as he was tired of seeing 512k ones being made for machines that would be able to do more.

Assassin was the least successful game from Team 17, mainly because of some bad reviews and a “special edition”, released 2 years later, that didn’t bring anything new to the game. On the contrary, various gameplay elements were even removed! What were they thinking? Even the box art from the original game was way better and appealing than the one from that supposed “special edition”.

Besides this, I think that this game deserved more recognition. Back in the day I thought that it was a huge hit. How I was wrong.

Being an Amiga exclusive, not all of you will be able to try it out, but you can always use an emulator for that purpose.

Graphically enjoyable and extremely playable, Assassin has also the most impressive atmospheric sound effects in a video game from British composer Allister Brimble, author of over 100 amazing tunes for the Amiga.

Speaking of playability, the fluid animation and the control that the player has over the main character, with some astonishing moves with a simple flick of the joystick, is just overwhelming.

Assassin was one of those gems that Amiga users would brag and made Atari ST owners explode in anger! But, again, I can’t understand why it didn’t sell well.. piracy?.. It is way better than U.S. GOLD’s Strider arcade conversion for home computers. No doubt about it!

Anyway, try it! It’s an amazing title and, with those awesome sound effects, you’ll be immersed in it for many hours!

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WolfChild [1992, Amiga / SNES] Review - It's a Pixel THING

The year was 1992 when Core Design released another awesome title.

This time around, the Atari ST was the chosen platform to develop another outstanding piece of software, but it’s on the Amiga that this title really shines. I even consider it to be an hidden gem, ‘cause every time I talk to my friends about it, no one really knows it.

For the ones that never played WolfChild, well, you should!

The game was created by Simon Phipps, the designer of Rick Dangerous and best known for providing that hilarious scream of death (SCREAM)! The audio department was in the good hands of Martin Iveson, renowned artist of the original Tomb Raider musical score.

As said before, WolfChild was originally released for the Atari ST and the Amiga, and, later, ported to every single Sega machine: the MasterSystem, Game Gear, Megadrive/Genesis, Sega CD and, also, for the Super Nintendo being, this last one, the only console version that you should play, mainly for its amazing parallax scrolling graphics and great music.

Obviously inspired from comic book art, which Simon Phipps’ is a huge fan, the characters’ animations, sprites and colorful background graphics are simply amazing.

The game features a pretty nice intro, where we get to know the reasons that made Europe’s vocalist, Joey Tempest, to submit himself to a biotechnological experiment that his father was working on before being kidnapped. The experiment gives our hero the ability to transform him into a wolf- human hybrid that has special attack techniques that may defeat the Chimera organization.

The scientist’s research was the main objective of the Chimera organization that aims to rule the world with their own breed of hybrid beings. But Joey Tempest is in the move and on its “FINAL COUNTDOWN” to slay all of those nasty creatures and rescue his father!

The action takes place over five amazing and beautifully designed multi-directional levels. In the first one we’re on this massive spaceship hovering over the clouds and taking down some stubborn bird-like bad guys. As we progress, power up items are laying around just waiting to be picked up. These items will give us the ability to change into a sort of werewolf with some bad ass weaponry!

Second level is set in a Endor-style forest and we’re faced against a horde of lizard beasts and nasty carnivorous plants.

The third level is a sort of Aztec temple filled with insect warriors that we must kill in our way to Chimera’s laboratories.

Once there, we come across a mish-mash of half-finished mutants and failed experiments which burst forth from their own incubator containers. Amazing stuff!

Apart from the first level, that functions as an appetizer to warm up the player making us believe that we’re this great undefeatable beast, all the others are quite long and maze like filled with platforms and nasty enemies in which we’re invited to explore and search carefully for extra hidden pick-ups and bonuses, shortcuts and secret rooms that are scattered through this fabulous scenario just waiting for us to discover.

In the end of each one there’s a nicely drawn boss that, in the Super Nintendo version, has pretty nice new and fancy animations when they appear on screen. So, to progress into the next level, we just need to hit them a several number of times in order for them to explode.

The sheer speed at which things happen force us to keep moving, making WolfChild a super-fast-paced game.

Technically superb, with its awesome atmospheric graphics, lightning effects and smooth scrolling, WolfChild is highly recommended to all fans of shoot’em-up platforming action.


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Myth - History in the Making [1992, Amiga] Review - It's a Pixel THING

I grew up enjoying all Ray Harryhousen’s extraordinary movies with cutting edge stop motion technology and one of my favorite films of all time is Jason and the Argonauts. Ray left us a remarkable legacy of adventure and action packed titles that will prevail for many years to come.

So, where MYTH fits into all this? Well, if you played the ZED X Spectrum or Commodore 64 version back in 1989 or, this one, the Amiga version released in 1992, you’ll know what I’m trying to say. MYTH is a stupendous videogame title extremely based on Rays Harryousen’s movies. As seen on my last episode, videogames in the 80s were highly influenced by the movie industry.

Developed and released by UK based software house System 3 for the greatest machines of late 80s, its pinnacle is the Amiga version. This version was on development for over two years after the 8 bit versions were out. So, it had to be good!

An Atari ST port of the Amiga game was also on development, but it ended up on the recycle bin. So, if you want to grab a 16 bit version of MYTH, the Amiga is the only one available, but in two flavors: disk or CD. Yes, there was a CD32 port that, unfortunately, didn’t have any improvement over the original Amiga game.

The game is split into five stages and, as opposed to what we saw in the Zed X Spectrum and C64 versions, we play with a barbarian character. Each stage consists of three levels which contain different styles of strategy and gameplay. Obviously, Mythology is what this game is all about and it covers Greek, Egyptian, Celtic and Norse. You’ll be travelling to these mythological sites which include the appropriate monsters and beasts to each particular mythology.

The objective it to slay the most evil God that ever walked this Earth, named Dameron, that killed a close friend of the main barbarian character. You must go through all this maze of platforms, killing everything that moves and solving puzzles as you go.

In the very first level we begin in Hades, the Greek Hell, and its mythology is instantly apparent as the first skeletons and blood sucking harpies appear on screen. Killing the harpies you can pick up extra energy and very important weapons to face the enemy in a more confident way. To escape from Hell you must find a way to get the trident weapon, ‘cause it’s the only way to kill the Cerberus, the three headed dog whilst, in the second level, you find yourself on the Crypts of Medusa where you need to collect the Medusa’s shield, so you can protect yourself from her evil rays.

There’s other mythological creatures to confront, such as the Hydra, Achilles and Nidhogg. Each one requires different skills to kill it. This is one of the things that makes this game so enjoyable, the nonlinear approach that we’re asked to make on every single level. Thinking of that, it is also kind of educational, forcing us to find ways of reaching victorious to the end of each level.

We’ll be also visiting amazing places like Valhallas’s castle and the great pyramid of Egypt where you’ll be searching for King Tut’s Tomb and treasure chamber.

The final battle against Dameron has a shoot ‘em up kind of feel to it. You’re flying and trying to kill the giant head of heads in this fast scrolling section.

Just for curiosity the NES version of this game, that probably was the only one available in the United States, was an enormous piece of royal crap! They even used Conan as the main character and changed the name to “Conan: The Mysteries of Time”. Upon its release, in 1991, all magazines were unanimous: this is an ugly, sad and uninspired version of an extraordinary game!

The basic idea in all platform games is to kill everything in sight and reach for the end of each level. Well, Myth is this and much more.

If platforming puzzle action is your thing, Myth is one of the best there is!

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ALIEN 3 (SNES) - It's a Pixel THING

Alien 3, directed by David Fincher, was a good looking movie with a crappy story that didn’t do so well on the box office. As for the game based on the movie, it still is one of my best Alien based videogame of all time.

Developed by Probe Entertainment and released between the end of 1992 and the beginning of 1993 for a crap load of 8 and 16 bit systems, the one that really was worth playing was the Super Nintendo version.

The game wasn’t at all faithful to the movie. There were only 3 things that makes us remind Alien 3: the title, the intro scene and Ripley’s haircut. Everything else is different, like the fact of all the levels are filled with aliens – in the movie there was only one – and, as the game starts, we’re granted access to a flame thrower, pulse rifle and a grenade launcher – once again, in the movie, there were no fire arms of any kind whatsoever. So, I think that we can’t directly compare the action present on the game to the one we see in the movie. Besides these observations, the game plays freaking well and it’s an extremely good platformer!

With its dark environment, creepy soundtrack and the well-known motion tracker – that was also absent from the movie, the six action-packed levels of the Super Nintendo version features a well-structured mission based system with a series of goals to complete in each one. Computer terminals can be found within the hallways, which link up to a static list of tasks that must be completed to advance to the next section. These missions can be taken in any order and include rescuing prisoners, destroying eggs, repairing damaged pipes, welding doors shut, and picking up power packs from one room and taking them to a generator in another. These were the main differences to all other previously released versions of the game, where you only have to destroy all aliens, free all abducted Fiorina 161 convicts and head to the exit before time runs out. Other big advantage of the Super Nintendo port was that there was no time limit.

To conclude, Alien 3 on the Super Nintendo is a time killer of a game. You start playing it and, in an instant, four hours have passed without even notice! The extremely well drawn graphics and its awesome parallax scrooling, which produce a beautiful illusion of depth, keeps us focused and even absorbed by its awesome gameplay!

Try to play Alien 3 in complete darkness! You’ll be amazed!..

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Fuzzball (1991/1992) Commodore Amiga Review

Developed by Scangames Norway and published by System 3 Software – Europe’s number 1 name in original games -, Fuzzball is platforming cuteness that you could even play with your girlfriend!

"In one particularly stormy night, the great Wizard had stepped outside for a drink with his buddies leaving his apprentice all by himself in the mighty castle. He had this great chance to snoop around through one of the wizard’s chambers. The chamber had a strange aura about it and the apprentice could feel the electrical energy generated within the air by the heavy storm blowing outside.

The mischievous apprentice had come to the chamber to have another look at the big old chest, the contents of which had been a closely guarded secret by the wizard for years. The apprentice wanted to know why the wizard would not show or even tell him what was inside.

Through the book of spells, he found one to “open”. He thought “this is it”! After reading the spell, a magic glow appeared in his hand. But he forgot to read the entire spell. The storms outside were higher and the boy’s eyes lit up with excitement as the magic began to appear in his hand. He aimed the glowing energy at the lock on the chest and then launched his creation at the target.

In an instant, the lid of the chest flew back and hundreds of strange fluffy balls began to leap from the chest. Fuzzball after fuzzball leapt to their freedom and began to fill the chamber. “What have I done”, screamed the young apprentice. The stream of fuzzballs seemed endless, and as they hit the floor they began to grow and grow.

Trying to reverse the spell, he brought another spell. The magic energy engulfed the young apprentice in a huge blue flash of light. He turned himself into a large blue fuzzball.

The great wizard returned to find his castle full of fluffy balls and told his apprentice that he could only return to his human form once he had collected and returned all the fuzzballs and all the jewels they took with them, back to the strange old treasure chest from whence they came."

This is the premise of Fuzzball and to complete each level, you'll have to collect all the items, food and treasures, while, at the same time, avoiding, or killing, various enemies. You will face mostly other fuzzballs, but also other creatures.

Each level is only a single screen filled with platforms, and can take a while to complete.

Throughout the castle there are several areas that are decorated in different styles. As well as the standard medieval decor you will also visit the gardens, an oriental type of place and a rather cold dungeon that has ice over the floors. 

Each of the areas is filled with loads of rooms to make a grand total of 50 levels.

Touching an enemy once means instant death, so, to survive in Fuzzball, you'll have to plan every move carefully, otherwise you'll die very quickly.

As you rush around the platforms collecting the gems, a clock counts down. When the time runs out, a gate opens and the level becomes infested with flying insects that will hunt your ass down.

Fuzzball was also planned to be released for the commodore 64 and a two level preview was even available to the readers of Commodore Format magazine but, because of inside conflicts, the game was abandoned in its final stages.

  

Back in late 80s early 90s, System 3 software was also responsible for publishing other extraordinary great titles, such as: Myth History in The Making, The Last Ninja trilogy, Tusker and Flimbo’s Quest.

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Ugh! (1992) Commodore Amiga Review

Back in 1992, the guys at Play Byte decided to publish a Lunar Lander and Space Taxi pre-historic clone. And I’m glad they did! Because, even today, this is a truly freakin awesome game to play!

"Life in the Stone Age was nice and peaceful. Sitting on your ass all day long, food everywhere and even a gorgeous girlfriend to play naughty games with. But she's eager for money and jewelry, so you need to think of something to appease her needs. In the meanwhile, a huge apple falls onto your head giving you the idea of creating a flying taxi kind of business to help your fellow cave friends travel faster and, consequently, make you rich."

Originally developed by EGO Software for the Amiga, it was also available for Commodore 64 and DOS. You control a muscle-powered helicopter kind of elevator and, to make some money for your future wedding with your pretty lovely cave girl, you need to transport passengers from one place to another through 69 – yes, 69 – levels of pure joy.

You only need to land near the cave people and they will automatically board your vehicle and tell you which platform they want you to fly them to. You’ll get extra bonus points for getting passengers to their destination before time runs out. In the process, you need to avoid all kind of hazards that will try to finish you off.

Besides natural obstacles, you must evade hostile dinosaurs, pterosaurs – the so called “birds” – and rising water level. Also be careful maneuvering your flying vehicle; touching obstacles with its rotor, as well as hard landings or colliding with solid surfaces, will result in mechanical damage.

Once it’s you, the player, that fuels the helicopter/elevator, you will become more and more exhausted. Your energy may be recovered by picking up fruit that can be knocked off the tree with blinking eyes using the stone that also blinks its eyes, both appear on every single level of the game. The stone can also be tossed over enemies making them unconscious for moments. But be careful how you use it! If you lose the stone, the more difficult it will be to finish that particular level.

There’s also present a very entertaining two player cooperative mode, where you and your cave buddy will most likely fight for the passengers rather than help each other!

Sound effects and music are very soft and relaxing and you’ll find yourself playing this game for hours.

What makes Ugh! a lot of fun is the devious layout of levels, all of which are filled with various traps, switches, doors and other things which will either hinder or help your progress. Some levels feature strange physics that affect your control of the taxi, while others contains magnetic fields and wind.

At the end of each level, you’ll be given a code for keeping track of your progress.

Being initially a boxed game, it was later re-released as shareware mainly on magazine cover disks.

Playing this title won’t certainly make you day boring!

If this game were made for today’s smartphones and tablets, I’m sure that it would make its creator a millionaire, just like Flappy Bird did to Dong Nguyen.

Ugh! is the perfect example of the good ol' reflex-coordination puzzle/arcade game.

If you’re after a good old enjoyable and relaxing Amiga game with beautiful graphics, Ugh! is the game to play!

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