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- DIZZY LIZZY by THE HAPPENING BOIZ
- (Published By Budgie, £2.95)
-
- The Happening Boiz attained critical acclaim for the graphics of
- Hostile Reception, their second game. This was a shoot-em-up, but
- their third game, Dizzy Lizzy, is somewhat different.
-
- Based (to some extent) on the Boulder Dash theme, D.L. is an
- arcade game with (yes, OK Eddie) some strategy. You must collect
- the diamonds hidden in a cavern while avoiding the problems of
- falling boulders, bombs, dynamite, fungus (Teenage Mutant Ninja
- Fungus, perhaps?), ice and the villainous Wayne. (Hello Wayne!)
- You must complete 40 levels of danger- infested screens before
- completing the game.
-
- Dizzy Lizzy boots up with a nice piece of music, but is slow in
- loading and decompacting. The attractive title screen gives
- options (selected by joystick) of high-scores (with some
- interesting messages), instructions (showing the hazards you are
- faced with) or starting the game. Pressing fire to select start,
- you are greeted by a nice picture and a password entry. Entering
- ORIENT for the first level, there is a short load, then the
- screen's info appears. Pressing a key throws you into the guts of
- the game.
-
- The best things about this game are the graphics. Dizzy is very
- cute, the diamonds have sparkle and bombs, rocks etc. are easily
- recognisable. Probably the first way you'll die is by hanging
- around a bomb, thinking it hasn't gone off. Fooled you! THe bomb
- is a time-delayed bomb and only goes off after about five moves.
- You die and go to the same screen as before, but with a good
- sample and a humourous message (I told you not to play with
- things, Mr Spoons is a good one). Pressing fire returns you to
- the game.
-
- (Oooops, almost forgot. When you die the lives sheet is torn
- off. Most people probably won't notice it, but Eddie will kill me
- if I don't mention it. He thinks its amazing, for some reason!)
-
- Completing level one is pretty easy, and very soon you will get
- the password to level two (well, as you're my friends, I'll tell
- you it's AMAZON) and another screen. Further on in the game, you
- will encounter Wayne in all his glory, chasing mercilessly, ice
- (with the s**t-scared Dizzy covering his eyes), rebounders (to
- stop you going where THEY don't want you to) and a series of
- devious screen designs to stop you completing the game. The sheer
- frustration of being unable to complete a screen, however, is
- very addictive. So much so, in fact, I almost became glued to my
- joystick for a while!
-
- When you finally foul up enough to die, you get presented with a
- normal message screen, then a status screen. (A suggestion: why
- not put the screen's password on here so you can remember it?)
- After pressing fire, the high-score entry comes up. This is the
- worst-presented part of the game, being extremely spartan in
- comparison with other parts of the game. The actual high-score
- screen is very good. The only other criticism is the time taken
- to load everything up.
-
- Now, critical time. The graphics are very good, and in fact I
- would rate them as some of the best cartoon-style graphics I've
- ever seen, but other aspects of the game are not so strong. It is
- not amazingly original, taking ideas from everything from Repton
- to Bombuzal, and the music is repetitive and can't be switched
- off easily (in fact, it's probably easier to turn down the volume
- on the TV). I also managed to crash the game a couple of times
- (anyone want a playtester? I'm available!). Some of the game's
- responses were also a bit slow.
-
- But the worst aspect was it's difficulty. In a weekend I managed
- to complete the game, and even if I hadn't played it to saturat-
- ion I would no doubt have finished it in a couple of weeks. Far
- to many of the screens could be completed without losing a life
- (and they weren't all mine either Eddie!) and none really stopped
- me for long.
-
- So, in conclusion.
-
- Sound Some good music, some annoying.
- Good spot effects. 84%
- Graphics Graphics and overall presentation
- are excellent. You'll love Dizzy. 92%
- Playability Very good speed (for STOS) but
- overall too easy. Also some long
- disk accesses. 71%
- Addictiveness Extremely addictive. In fact
- (cliche ahoy) I couldn't put my
- joystick down! 97%
- OVERALL Polished dodge-em game that's
- addictive but easy. Brill for the
- kids, amazing at the price.
- 93%
-
- Review by The Cool Carrot, 22/10/90. And honestly, I'm not
- biased. Do NOT buy Hostile Reception: the graphics are good but
- the gameplays Rap with a capital....
-
- }
-