The Fantastic Adventures Of Dizzy

Weve all been there. Sitting in the pub or at a party when someone lets slip that you play computer games. You watch anxiously as people begin to drift away. No, dont get me wrong, you cry desperately, Computer games arent what you think. Theyre not all sexist violence or childish cuteness, there are some really excellent, intelligent products. Honest. You then go on to list examples of the games that someone would be a fool not to be impressed by.

The chances are Fantastic Dizzy would not be one of them. The Dizzy games started life way back in the days of 8-bit computer games and resurfaced on the 8-bit nes console. On that format they represented great value for money, tending to be less expensive than their competitors yet containing plenty of pretty taxing gameplay. However, without wishing to sound like some sort of computer snob, these games really are out of place on the pc.

The genre is what in the old days, (when you could go and see Arthur Askey for a shilling and still have change for the bus ride home), used to be called arcade adventure. Dizzys girlfriend Daisy has been kidnapped by the evil wizard Zaks and he must rescue her. For some reason this necessitates him collecting 250 stars that are lying around his world, (the reason is that they each represent a magic unit and you need 250 of these to enter Zaks castle - in case you are interested).

As Dizzy wanders or rolls about, there are various objects he can collect to assist in his quest (such as keys, weed-killer, gold and rum), though he can only carry three of these at a time. Theres no fighting as such, though Dizzy does get damaged by bumping into those well known predators - snails. One of the other main hazards is water since Dizzy, not being a bad egg, doesnt float.

Eggstreme prejudice

Lets just pretend that I didnt think Dizzy was a terribly unoriginal game entirely lacking in the depth or variety that youd expect on the pc. Lets just pretend that I thought it was a classic piece of software from the days when gameplay was more important than graphics. In this world of make believe would I give it a good score?

No. The animation is limited, little more than an egg rolling and occasionally bouncing back when it collides with an enemy. And not only is the animation limited, it is also slow. Even with the background graphics switched off were in snailsville. Theres a danger of being accused of hypocrisy here. Havent we always said that big is not necessarily best, and that theres a virtue in simplicity.

The problem is that the gameplay in Dizzy is too simple and too similar. But, you might say, its aimed at children. It still costs the best part of 30 quid I reply.