A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Page 1: Hacker - Hard Hat Mack Page 2: Harricana - Heartland Page 3: Heavy on the Magick - Hero Quest Page 4: Hideous - Hobgoblin |
Page 5: Holdfast - Hora Bruja Page 6: Hot Rod - Hunchback II: Quasimodo's Revenge Page 7: Hundra - Hypsys |
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Axil the Able has ended up in a dungeon for incurring the wrath of the wizard Therion, and obviously, he must find some way of escaping. This is an excellent, and perhaps unique, adventure game. Axil isn't much of a fighter, so he has to use spells throughout his search. Many of the doors in the dungeon are also magical and can only be opened by entering a password – but how is he going to find out what the passwords are? Fortunately, there is a very helpful ogre called Apex who he can ask for information about things, but his answers are rather cryptic... At first I didn't like this game much; it takes time to understand what you need to do and how to do it. Once you've managed this, things become clearer and you'll discover a clever and challenging game which will tax your brains for a long time. 8 |
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An old and odd game idea here. You place stranded clones found on the right-hand side of the screen into pockets on the far left. To do this, you must navigate a series of sprites that hinder your journey; collision results in instant death. You carry an infinite supply of bombs that ease this burden, but it's still a tricky deal. There are 24 levels here, where the only difference you encounter is the formation of the wacky sprites that are out to stop you. Fun for a few minutes, but beyond this, there's nothing to keep you hooked. Simple graphics and sound sum up this Spectrum port. 3 |
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Help Inc.
(WoW, 1993) Help Inc. is a secret organisation that can be relied on to get you out of trouble – unless they send Agent 57, their most incompetent member. During one assignment, you have ended up inside a prison cell with another prisoner for company. Your immediate priority is to escape, but Help Inc. have another mission lined up for you if you succeed... This is a text adventure written using GAC which starts off quite promisingly. However, the area you can explore is rather small compared with most adventures, and the puzzles and locations seem to have been added haphazardly, with little thought for how they fit together as a whole. 5 |
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Helter Skelter
(Audiogenic, 1991) This is a slightly strange game in which you control a bouncing ball and must kill monsters by bouncing on them. On each level, there are several monsters which you need to destroy in the right order; an arrow shows you which monster you need to kill. If you touch the wrong monster, it will divide into two monsters. You have only 30 seconds to complete each level, so you can't afford to waste any time. It sounds like an interesting game but it's seriously flawed. The animation of the ball is ridiculously jerky, and the ball itself is very hard to control. The graphics are poor as well, which is quite a contrast to the gorgeous loading screen and the cute and catchy music. 3 |
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In Greek mythology, Hercules (or Heracles) was punished by Eurystheus and made to carry out twelve labours. However, you don't actually perform twelve tasks in this game. Instead, you fight against a seemingly immortal skeleton in a terminally boring, single screen beat-'em-up. The twelve labours are each represented by an icon that occasionally appears on the screen; if you hit it, it will move into an urn on the left of the screen. However, watch out for the large spider, which will steal the labours you've collected, unless you can reach it in time and hit it. The background graphics are OK, but the music is terrible, the gameplay is very repetitive, and you really have very few, if any, clues as to how well you are doing. 3 |
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Herobotix
(Rack It, 1988) The Z-ray particle destroyer gun, which is able to destroy entire planets, has been stolen from its location in a secret laboratory and divided into six pieces. Herobotix the droid has entered the alien ship where the pieces are now hidden, and must find and reassemble them. The ship is massive, although it has a network of teleporters to jump to different parts. There are also computers which can switch off the conveyor belts for a while or show a small section of the ship on a map, and switches which turn off force fields – and touching them results in instant death. The graphics are rather average, and while the gameplay is reasonably good, you won't enjoy it much unless you're willing to make a map of the ship. 7 |
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Heroes of Karn
(Interceptor, 1984) Karn has been ravaged by evil, and four of its mightiest citizens – Beren the king, Istar the wizard, Haldir the elf-lord, and Khadim the dwarf, known as the Heroes of Karn – are trapped under four different spells. Only a fearless adventurer such as you can set them free. The atmosphere of this adventure is complemented by the awesome graphics that are shown when you enter a new location, and it's easy to get into the game, although it becomes harder after you've rescued Beren. However, the limited vocabulary and primitive parser ruin what is otherwise a fine adventure. 7 |
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Closely based on characters and events from the Dragonlance book Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the aim of this game is to take your party of eight brave warriors deep into the ruins of the temple of Xak Tsaroth and retrieve the Disks of Mishakal from the huge dragon guarding them, thus saving the world or something. The storyline is a bit lame, but the graphics make up for that; the characters and monsters move fluidly and there is a lot of detail in the backgrounds. Also, the loading screens of the game's warriors are pretty nice too. Alas, the sound effects aren't on the same level, and also the game is too hard; when you first play, all eight of your characters will be dead before they know what hit them – which is a shame, because the game has got potential. 6 |
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Hero of the Golden Talisman
(Mastertronic, 1986) The Golden Talisman protected a faraway city from evil, but it has now been stolen and broken up into five pieces which have been scattered throughout a deadly labyrinth. You must enter the labyrinth and find the missing pieces, so that the Wizard's curse on the city can be removed. The labyrinth consists of more than 500 screens; it's big! There are objects to be collected, including coloured keys which open portcullises of the same colour, candles to help you see where you're going, and flags which increase your firepower, which will help you defeat the dragons. The graphics and sound effects are primitive and the controls are rather frustrating, as is the need to position yourself absolutely precisely when trying to bounce off the walls and on to a ledge lower down. 5 |
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Hero Quest
(Gremlin, 1991) Morcar and his legions of Chaos have taken over the empire, but four men have undertaken the task of defeating him. You control the party – a barbarian, a dwarf, an elf and a wizard – as they attempt fourteen quests. In every room and corridor, there are things to be discovered; secret doors, hidden treasure, potions, monsters and traps. Many of the quests offer rewards for completing them successfully, which you can use to buy extra equipment for the later quests. It's a classic role-playing game which is based on a board game of the same name, and the graphics and sound are very good (if you have 128K of memory, that is). The pace can be a bit slow, but there is a real urge to explore further, and when you've completed all the quests, there are ten more for you to try in Hero Quest: Return of the Witch Lord – but they're much tougher! 9 |
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