Label: Firebird
Author: In-house
Price: £9.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Alison Skeat
Well this it a first! Al, the office girlie, it about to embark on a journey through her very first games review. I'm absolutely crap at games playing, I get all excited one minute and muck it all up or I get angry when my man gets shot or blown up.
But fear not, this time I've managed to leave the games den in one piece after playing Firebird's latest release, Rick Dangerous. I first saw this game on the Atari ST and it looked great. And you can smack my legs if the Speccy version isn't just at good. Rick Dangerous looks ruddy marvellous.
So what's it all about then? Rick looks like a midget version of Indiana Jones and level one starts just after Rick has crashed his plane in the Amazon Jungle. Spotted by a bunch of raving mad tribesmen Rick ducks into a nearby temple to escape them, but the wiley wildmen are close on his tail.
Armed with a stick, a gun and some dynamite, Rick runs around the corridors of the temple fighting off the baddies. To shoot his gun you have to hold the fire button down and push the joystick up, no problem. But when it comes to using your stick (pushing joystick down and moving left or right) you have to poke the baddie at least twenty times before he falls over, a bit tedious though it serves at a useful lesson not to waste your ammo.
The graphics are clear and considering the amount of colour used there is virtually no attribute clash. The scrolling is very smooth and produced hardly any flicker.
You want to avoid are the pinky spikes sticking out of the ground and the masses of green lumpy stuff on the floor, which tend to merge in with the background, so be careful.
Watch out for the men blowing darts from the sides, you'll have to do a bit of ducking there. Lastly, remember if you lay some dynamite by pulling the joystick down you'd better run away from it pretty quick or it'll blast you right off the screen.
There are four levels to get through, in all and they take Rick to Egypt to help recover the priceless Jewel of Ankhel; to a PoW camp to rescue some allied soldiers, and lastly Rick takes on a bunch of soldiers preparing a missile attack on London - what a boy!
It was great fun. The graphics are really clear and the colour was put to good use. This game consists of 85 screens so it took me ages to get through the lot.
Rick may not be as hunkey as Harrison Ford but he's certainly go me hooked - ol Rick come here and give us a snog.
Label: Hit Squad
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter
That tricky Ricky Dangerous, leaping, sproinging scaled down version of a pistol totin' hero is back.
But not in a new adventure this time, but finally he's a his way onto budget label. Over two years old now, Rick Dangerous is a multi-level, platform game that has Rick slowly making his way through a series of underground catacombs, collecting points and ammo for his six shooter, and most importantly, avoiding an the traps and pitfalls that the previous owners of this des res labyrinth have left for him.
Play isn't easy but does follow a pattern so that with perseverance you can finish the game and with colourful graphics, great deal of humour (just look at the patrolling nasties haircuts), Rick Dangerous is a good budget buy for anyone that likes an action game that requires a little bit of thought.
ALAN:
I was nicely surprised when I found I had to think about several situations before I tried to tackle them. An excellent arcade brain teaser.
Label: Kixx
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Paul Rand
Forget that archaeologist geezer. He's a bit of an old woman compared to Rick Dangerous - and he even wears the same hat! Copy cat.
Mr Dangerous is half-way through a relaxing flight when his plane decides to run out of fuel a nose-dive into the jungle - just next to a lost Aztec temple full of marauding tribesmen! Would you believe it? So begins the first adventure of the most intrepid explorer since Jones. Programmed by Core Design who're better known these days for creating cracking 16-bit games such as Heimdall and Thunderhawk.
Rick enters the temple armed with a big stick, some dynamite and a pistol The last two items are in limited supply a so must be used sparingly. Don't be too down-hearted though, as there are further supplies scattered throughout the temple. Not only must these weapons be used to do away with the natives, they also come in useful in disarming the many traps which the tribesmen have built to get rid of unwanted visitors to their abode.
Rick Dangerous a fairly bog-standard arcade adventure, but this time the hackneyed platform collect 'em up is spiced up with good graphics and addictive gameplay. Some of the traps are extremely puzzling, calling for a fair wodge of forward planning, and it's vitally important that those bullets and sticks of TNT are used sparingly - you'll find that they're most needed just when you have none left!
A big Spectrum hit at full-price, Rick Dangerous should just as well this time around.
ALAN:
I've always found Rikky good fun and challenging to play. It's a fairly standard platform but good detection and plenty of action make it a budget hit.
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