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Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Brian
Bloodaxe
1985 The Edge
Programmed
by Trevor Inns
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Most
text of the present article comes from the review published
in the fourth issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(August 1985). |
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BRIAN
BLOODAXE
The
Edge, £9.95 cass, joystick or keys
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With overtones of Monty Python musically and Life
of Brian visually, Brian Bloodaxe sets out
on a quest full of Primary Imbalance.
Away
to where, you may wonder. Well, the inlay doesn't help
much -- on purpose, as it states clearly enough. But
Brian of the bloody axe is a Viking Rip Van Winkle who,
after being stuck in an ice block for hundreds of years,
has thawed out. On re-awakening, he decides to do what
he originally set out to do, and conquer Britain, except
now it's 1983 (a period piece as you see).
Brian
turns to manic mining in his quest
for the British Throne.
Through
100 plus screens of platform-inspired jumping, Brian
must steal the Crown Jewels and sit on the throne. The
screens are variously designed (an early one is a snooker
table complete with killer balls for instance) and require
jump/timing skills. Some objects can be picked up and
used like the triangle on the snooker screen, which
keeps the snooker balls at bay but it can also be placed
usefully and acts as a jumping platform. The larger
of the hazards can be used similarly, like the duck
whose back is broad and safe as long as you walk fast
enough to keep up, but watch out for the beak!
Primary
Imbalance is a new and highly sophisticated programming
technique whereby things don't always work as you might
expect. Water drowns, for instance, but Brian has a
fine line in walking on water as long as he keeps bouncing.
On the other hand, Primary Imbalance may be nothing
more sophisticated than a game frustration factor, depending
on how you look at it. The ability to pick up objects
and use them (Brian can only carry three at a time)
does make Brian Bloodaxe into more than just
a platform game, as the uses of the objects are critical
to success and the Throne.
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Brian Bloodaxe
claims to have Primary Imbalance, which suggests that
anything could happen, and this is certainly the case.
The Monty Python music also indicates that this is no
ordinary game. It is in fact a souped-up platformer
aardvark, which these days
seem to be the games and require thought as well
as the customary skills. It has all sorts of odd happenings
in it. To name a few, I found I could walk on the back
of nasties but died if I met them head on -- quite logical
-- but when jumping off a ledge onto another, it decided
to move away leading Brian to a watery grave -- quite
illogical. So my advice is to expect anything. Or perhaps
nothing much. This was quite a critical hit on the Spectrum
for The Edge and perhaps they thought it would be sufficient
to simply transfer everything onto the 64 as it was.
Result: a perfectly Spectrum-looking game on the 64.
I suppose this needn't be a drawback if the game itself
was outstanding, but Brian
Bloodaxe isn't
-- it's an okay aardvark, often amusing but in the end
a bit tedious -- and it would do better if it were at
the £2 cheaper Spectrum price.
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Presentation 61%
Humourous
approach to 'instructions', purposefully unhelpful.
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When
I first saw this I thought that Gary had secretly
connected one of CRASH's Spectrums up to the telly.
After spending half an hour looking for it, I
realised that it was a 64 program. OH WOT?! Flickery
sprites, pathetic graphics and horrible sound,
the ideal ingredients for a really grotty Spectrum
game. The game itself lives up to the impression
generated at first glance, horrible. It's a platform
aardvark which steals a lot of ideas from Jet
Set Willy,
with its 'humourous' denizens flickering around
the screen. At its price it's a steal, The Edge
robbing any innocent, unsuspecting 64 gamer.
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Graphics 19%
Very poor, limited animation, terrible
use of colour, colour clashes and flickery graphics.
Sound
39%
Reasonable tune that gets on nerves
quite easily.
Hookability
32%
Got some interesting problems,
but will they hold your interest for long?
Lastability
24%
No, they probably won't.
Value
For Money 17%
You can buy 5 Mastertronic games
for this price.
Overall
18%
Just very disappointing.
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Htmlized
by Dimitris
Kiminas (7 May 2002)
Other
"Games of the Week!"
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