SAVAGE PRINCESS 2
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After the tiring events of Savage Princess, Princess Ava decanted to the pub, where several libations were imbibed. Now, in Savage Princess 2, we find her sleeping off a well-earned hangover, when she is rudely awakened by Eldritch dreams, and the sounds of screaming outside. Cthulhu has woken from his slumber! Even as her home town of Kilbaddie burns around her, Ava wants nothing more than 40 winks, and sets off in search of the betentacled behemoth that disrupts her sleep.

I tried to add a little more personality to Princess Ava in this game, from the insults, to the AFK animation, to the ability to tea-bag enemies to enrage their comrades, amongst other little details. The game also dispenses with the limited amount of lives prevalent in games like this, instead offering infinite lives, but with the caveat of Princess Ava looking on from the menu, looking more and more disgusted with each life you lose (and a secret ending for completing the game without dying!). All in all I'd like to think it is a vast improvement on the first game. But don't just take my word for it,  check out the reviews in Retro Gamer and Crash magazines below!


The .tap file can be loaded into any ZX Spectrum emulator (I use Fuse or ZX Spin but there are others out there), or recorded/played via a physical cassette and played on real hardware (there are various different methods of doing this; personally I use a car-tape-deck adapter in my Speccy hooked up to my PC headphone socket).


CONTROLS

Keyboard, Sinclair or Kempston joysticks. Keys can be redefined.

Standard Keys are:

Q - Climb ladder/ Jump

A - Descend ladder/ Access Buildings/ “T-Bagging”

O - Left

P - Right

M - Fire button

G - Mute the music

H - Quit


TIPS

In order to progress through the game, five tokens must be collected; 3 on the first level, and 1 in each of the proceeding levels. Each fills your "LALDY" meter at the bottom right of the screen. Once filled, Ava will be able to "Gi’e it laldly" to Cthulhu.

Crates can be used to stand on and access other areas, and can also be used to kill enemies by touching/squashing them. Enemy corpses can be used in a similar manner. They can also be stacked, in some cases.

Level 3 is set in Cthulhu’s home, the Corpse City of R’lyeh, built with non-Euclidean geometry and designed to test your wits as screens warp around themselves.

As well as killing enemies, you can use your sword to deflect incoming arrows, and briefly admonish wriggling tentacles to allow safe passage by them. You can also break down a wall to find a secret hidden in the game!

https://monsters-legs.itch.io/savage-princess-2