Producer: Quicksilva
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £7.99
Language: Machine code
Author:
This is the story of Rupert, an international star of stage, screen and newspaper page. Now in his sixty fifth year, when most other folk are thinking of retiring, Rupert appears in a computer game courtesy of Quicksilva. One of the world's most distinguished bears is brought to your Spectrum's screen, in Rupert and the Toymaker's Party.
Rupert, ever the helpful soul, has been assisting his father with some chores and as a result is now late for the big party being held by the Toymaker in his castle. Rupert's pals have left behind a trail of invites pinned to the castle walls for Rupert to follow, and he must collect them all up on his way.
Eager for his ice cream, jelly and lashings of ginger beer, Rupert must follow the trail through eight different areas of the castle on his way to the party room. Each part of the castle is represented by four linked screens, with invitations on different levels and Rupert must clear all four screens before he can goon with his journey.
All manner of toys are wandering loose in the castle - trains, soldiers and aeroplanes to name a few and while most of them give Rupert a tough time on contact, causing him to take a tumble, others are helpful. Rupert can jump over toys to avoid them, but there is only so much a bear can take: Rupert's pain threshold is reached once he's had five tumbles. When Rupert's surpassed his pain barrier he trots back to the cottage in a bit of a sulk and the game's over.
The menu screen at the start of the game allows you to choose between three entry points to the game, so Rupert can take a different route to the castle for variety. Once the choice of start location has been made, the screen displays the first sheet with a helpful little rhyme at the top. Pressing the pause key starts the game proper, and the poetry disappears to be replaced with a status line, indicating the player' s score and the number of tumbles left before Rupert will walk off, stage left, in a huff.
If you manage to jump Rupert round the platforms and collect up all the invites, he gets to join his friends at the party and you will be treated to a reward screen showing the chums having fun.
COMMENTS
Control keys: O/P left/right, bottom row to jump
Joystick: Kempston or Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: not wonderfully done, lots of attribute problems
Graphics: adequate, rather than inspired
Sound: spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: 32
On the Commodore, Rupert is a very pretty game which is amusing if not exactly nerve-wracking or exciting to play. Sadly, in translating it to the Spectrum, most of the graphical charm has been lost. This leaves a very ordinary platform game behind - which might be fun for younger game players and avid Rupert fans, but it had no real appeal for me. The game format is nothing new or exciting - another tie-in to a character that's more front than game.
There's not much of a game to play here - Rupert is little more than a simple platform variant. This isn't a graphically appealing game, sound is sparse and unimaginative and the gameplay is just as weak, making it very monotonous to play. It's very difficult to jump up steps at times, since Rupert can't move small enough distances - for each keypress he takes quite a considerable stride, making life tough for pixel perfect jumps and the game incredibly frustrating to play. My conclusions? Rupert and the Toymaker's Party is nothing more than an average platform game and there are far better of the genre available.
The graphics which are rather plain and dull, with lots of attribute problems. Playability-wise Rupert is a fun game to play at first, but within a couple of goes I had lost interest. Overall it is an average game that may appeal to ardent fans of Rupert paraphernalia, but is nothing stunning in its own right. Not one of 'The most powerful games in the universe' whatever Quicksilva might have you believe.
Rick: Hey, this one is really weird man! See, there's this bear who wears these wacky yanky golfing pants and he can walk, jump and - wait for it - climb the stairs. But he doesn't drink lager, well this is one for the kids, innit?
Rupert (that's the bear's name kids) has got to collect his many invitations to see his even wierder friends Bill the Badger and Podgy the Pig - you know one of those parties! Well Rupert needs more invitations than Podgy's had hot dinners, and not only that, naughty toy soldiers and toy trains try to trip him up along the way, though some will be very good sports and help him. They'll need to 'cos you have to go through four linked screens for each of the eight levels.
Unfortunately Rupert also has an embarrassing speech impediment which means all the screen instructions are in dum-di-dum rhyming couplets which will maim many an innocent ear to the power of poetry.
The toymaker's castle, its corridors and castellations were presumably built by Barrett - or does that reflect the quality of the graphics? Rupert does look quite a lot like he did in the comic, though some wish he'd stay there. Oh, and he still wears that scarf to hide his love bites.
Quicksilva hasn't aimed so much at the mega-tots but their spinster aunts who feel that if Toby or Fenella have to have one of those awful computer games then this safe, competent platform game is the one to get. I'm afraid though that little Toby will be out on the corner with that vulgar Wayne doing a deal for a quick Buck Rogers. 4/10
Ross: Frankie goes to the toymaker's party in this cute number. Not as good as the (dare I say it?) Commie version, but it'll do. 6/10
Dougie: Frankly, I'd still prefer a copy of the annual in my Christmas stocking 4/10
Publisher: Quicksilva
Price: £7.99
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair
Rupert has been behind by his who have gone off for a taste of ginger beer and cream buns at the Toymaker's party.
Ravenous beast that he is, Rupert just has to get to all that food and you can help him past the guards and into the castle where the party is held. Just guide him through the eight levels, picking up the invitations which his friends have left behind to guide him on his way. When you have picked up all the invitations on one level, you can move through to the next.
Each level consists of four linked screens, which in turn have three floors. You can jump on barrels, potted plants and staircases to move to new floors. If one of the soldiers birds collides with you, Rupert will forced down to the ground level again.
In each section of the castle you have a limited number of lives which Quicksilva has decided to call Tumbles. The number you have will depend upon the level of difficulty. If you run out of tumbles you will be abruptly marched off the screen by a soldier. Disgraceful!
Rupert must be starving if he insists on being submitted to the gruelling tests of the Toymaker's castle. Why won't the guards let him into the castle? Has he collected enough invitations? Where is he putting them all? Why is a grown-up playing, this game? Those are not the sort of questions which young children will ask and Rupert is a game for the kids.
They might find that it is almost impossible to get off the third screen, or that the graphics are fairly simple, but that might not bother them.
The game is a disappointment, I used to be an avid Rupert fan and his appearance in this game is not how I remember him.
MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Quicksilva
PRICE: £7.99
While we're on the subject of Rupert - The Toymaker's Party is now available in a Spectrum version.
It follows faithfully the format of the C64 version - as mapped in October's C+VG. But the graphics aren't so good and there's considerable colour clash and flicker.
The game is basically a platform style arcade adventure. Rupert has to collect invitations and make his way through a castle to reach his mates who are already enjoying themselves at the party.
Looking at the game, you realise that some games are destined for just one machine. And I'm afraid Rupert is one of them.
CBM-64 and Spectrum
Quicksilva
Arcade Adventure
£7.99
Rupert's chums are holding a wild party - oodles of currant buns and lashings of pop. But getting the ancient teddy bear there on time is going to be no picnic.
You have to manoeuvre the geriatric Rupert through seven screens of great graphics to what are presumably his sixty-fifth birthday celebrations. Rupert's first computer escapade is played our in and around the Toymaker's castle.
The toymaker himself never puts in an appearance but there are plenty of his products about - most of the toys are out of control and aiming to make a nasty mess of the cuddly bear. But animal lovers shouldn't worry; no nasty incidents of mammal mangled in clockwork. The worst that happens is that Rupert takes a tumble and after six of those the game ends.
Toymaker's Party is a platform game with the action viewed from the side. You have to get Rupert to collect the party invitations pinned to the walls to progress to the booze and buns.
He hops and jumps energetically over an assortment of runaway jack-in-the-boxes, toy soldiers and trains, ande can hitch a lift to safety on the back of magpies and toy aeroplanes. Be careful in the latter stages - toys that were benign become killers and what were dangerous gafgets suddenly become Rupert's allies.
The setting for this game may be out of the nursery, but it's good clean fun to play and the graphics and music are as good at any you'll find in in a CBM-64 platform adventure.
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