Phantomas 2


by Alfonso Azpiri, Emilio Pablo Salgueiro Torrado, Nigel Fletcher, Santiago Morga B., Snatcho
Dinamic Software
1986
Crash Issue 35, Dec 1986   page(s) 37

Producer: Codemasters
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Emilio Salgueiro

For many years now the Planet Earth and it's surrounding space stations have been terrorised by Count Oracular. The appearance of this gothic character in the space age year of 2987 is strange enough for a start, but Oracular has not come alone. By chewing at the necks of earth's inhabitants, he has recruited his own army of vampires, these are in turn feeding off the people of Earth.

Armed with only a poem about Vampires to help him, our hero - Brok - sets off to tackle the vampires. His aim, to find the stake, the hammer and the cross which will dispatch the blood- lusting count and his nasty adversaries. The castle has two sections, there's the underground system of dungeons where it's dark and stuffy and, if he can get that far, the surface part of the game. The Count is a crafty devil and has been expecting such a visit. He has rigged the entire castle with all manner of strange traps to destroy the brave Wok.

Brok only has one life in the game and this is represented by an energy chart at the bottom of the screen. Brok's energy decreases every time he brushes against one of the Count's minions. When this chart reaches zero the game is over.

Brave Brok moves around the castle on his feet, although he does possess a very high leaping facility (and a not so high jumping facility) which can take him out of danger now and again.

Brok must find three keys as he toddles around the labyrinths. There are also certain objects which must be collected in order for Wok to progress through the game. And, finally, there are the three objects which will finish off the Count once and for all. Evil cackle.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Definable
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface II
Keyboard play: easy to confuse the two types of jump
Use of colour: fair
Graphics: adequate for a platform game
Sound: spooky little tune at the start of the game with some spot effects throughout
Skill levels: one
Screens: 80 different rooms


Blimey! Another game from the CODE MASTERS, they must be working overtime! What we have here is another budget arcade adventure. The main character is a very small bloke that trudges around in a very simple fashion. The things that he encounters in his quest range from some very simple one direction arrows, to well animated bubbles and fiery candlesticks. Vampire is a well presented game, but it is let down by flickery graphics and simple gameplay - but not a bad effort.


No sorry I've given up with this one, it's just too frustrating to play anymore. I was looking forward to it, as Code Masters other games aren't at all bad but this has certainly changed my view of them. I suppose it's not too bad. The graphics are fairly good and there is some colour clash but what do you expect for two quid? There are plenty of budget games around that are a lot more playable than this so I wouldn't really recommend it.


Aw no! Not another one! I'm going to sit in a corner and moan if companies keep on producing games of this style. Argh! I'll be forced to play aardvarks all day. Urgh! A word of warning to soft houses; I hate this sort of utterly boring, run of the mill, sub-standard, average game. Very sorry Code masters, but I don't think that this game is very good at all. OK?.

Use of Computer: 58%
Graphics: 60%
Playability: 46%
Getting Started: 49%
Addictive Qualities: 47%
Value for Money: 58%
Overall: 51%

Summary: General Rating: Another slight variation on a rather tired theme.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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