Producer: US Gold
Retail Price: £7.95
Real Estate agents move in on the Goonie's homes and offer a pay-up or move out alternative to the families living there, Not being terribly well off the households agree to sell up. However, on their last day in the house the Goonies (so named because they don't really fit in with other kids in the neighbourhood) discover some ancient pirate paraphernalia which indicates a substantial fortune of buried treasure so they decide to go off in search of One- Eyed Willys Pirate ship, the general idea being that it they find it they can afford to buy their parent's homes, thus thwarting the plans of the greedy Real Estate sharks.
Like the film, team work is very much a feature in this game. The basic idea is that each screen contains a puzzle which two of the Goonies must solve. Each puzzle is different but the idea is always the same: to get both characters through a concealed exit out of the screen while at the same time avoiding whatever perils are lying in wait for them. It is impossible for any screen to be completed without the interaction of the two Goonies with each other. If you're playing with another person then each player controls one Goonie. However, the game can be played by one person on their own by changing the control of each Goonie by pressing the CAPS key.
For the completion of each screen you are awarded 1000 points, but extra points can be scored for other actions that solve problems on screen, such as flipping a switch that opens up the secret exit. When both Goonies are safely out of a screen you will automatically progress to the next one and so on until One-Eyed Willy's treasure has been found.
Each screen contains all sorts of perils for each pair of Goonies. Manic butchers try and chop them up not to mention killers bats, vats of nasty stuff and the odd giant octopus thrown in for good measure.
For each pair of Goonies there are five lives. One of these lives is lost every time contact is made with a nasty on the screen.
COMMENTS
Control keys: SPACE-pause, Q-up, A=down, O=left, P-night, CAPS=fire/change control of character
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour rather dull
Graphics: stick man animation
Sound: Goonie music plays throughout
Skill levels: one
Screens: eight
Well US GOLD certainly took their time in releasing this one, the film's so old that even the backward Ludlow Regal has shown it. The game is a little on the dull side, the puzzles are generally very easy so you can rush through the first few levels without much brain ache. The graphics are a bit tacky, the characters move about badly and they are badly drawn, the backgrounds however are a little prettier. I don't really think that Goonies represents very good value for money as there are many budget games around that are in the same vein.
I must confess, Goonies is much better than I expected. The graphics are well designed, if a little small, and each screen contains an effective amount of colour. Soundwise, Goonies is right on line, with good spot effects, and an in game tune that can be turned on and off. The tune didn't seem to slow down the fast gameplay at all. It is a definite team play game, and in two player mode lots of suggestions can fly around as to what the other person should be doing. The problems on each of the screens differ tremendously in difficulty, and you'd be doing well to get off the first screen in your first few goes - unless you've seen the film, then it won't take you any time at all. This is a definite case of see the film then buy the game.
I can't even say that I enjoyed the video. Loads of little kids screaming about an Indiana Jones scenario is the sort of thing that makes me sick. The game follows in the same vein. Graphics are awful, with some really dire'animation'; at least the kid can walk like an Egyptian! Playability wise, the game didn't grab me at all; if anything, it let me drop. The sound is the sort that gives Spectrum owners a bad name. So's the game.
US Gold
£7.99
Ya-roo! Yee-hah! At last, it's here, the Wondrous One - after a year's wait, (anticipation only adds to the enjoyment) US Gold has finally released Goonies, just as the video of the movie peaks in the charts.
US Gold's pedigree is steeped in blood - normalizing Moscow, busting dams and blowing up Beach heads, so it's refreshing to report that Goonies, true to the Spielberg innocence of the film, is based on co-operation and helping your buddies in peril. Go-it-alone Ramboism won't help you here. It's a complex platform game requiring enough forethought to count as strategy. But though the problems are mind boggling the emphasis is always on fun rather than frustration.
Your goal is the treasure on board One Eyed Willy's pirate ship. Only by working with Mikey, Brand, Mouth and Co can the wicked Fratellis be avoided and your home sweet homes saved. You can play two up, but it's fascinating on your lonesome - provided you remember to hit fire to change characters.
Movement's fairly conventional and you won't find much originality in the various ropes, tunnels, ladders and holes you have to negotiate to get around the screens. However, you're not allowed to move from a screen without both your Goonies. And though it might be relatively simple to get one through, two will sometimes seem downright impossible. Suffice to say you'll have to work like those great partnerships of yore, Sharp and Lineker, Brahms and Liszt, Robertson and his golly, if you want to get anywhere. And if that isn't enough, in between you'll be solving puzzles and negotiating action sequences and diversions that've been created in apparently unconnected parts of the screen.
Not only will this project you into your next pit of horrors but you'll gain points. All this with just five lives to play with! However, successfully negotiate the cannonball chamber and you'll win three extra Goonies, and five thousand points for every Goonie you've still got left.
After such a wait you might well have expected something with a little more razz-a-matazz - some of the graphics slip toward stick man standard - but otherwise you can't go far wrong with this. Go on out and get them Goonies!
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