Danger Mouse in Double Trouble
(Creative Sparks, 1985)
Baron Greenback has built an android version of Danger Mouse which is due to be released at tea-time today! Danger Mouse and Penfold must thwart the Baron’s plans in this three-part action game. The first part is a simple shoot-’em-up where you destroy the Baron’s flying robots by playing the appropriate tune from the jukebox in Danger Mouse’s aerocar (!). The second part is a platform game in which Danger Mouse must jump across swamps and climb trees, although if you’re playing the easy version of the game, you don’t have to complete this part, so you can go on to the third and final part, where you must extinguish all the yellow lights on a grid. The graphics are OK, as is the rendition of the Danger Mouse theme tune, but the levels are much too short, and once you complete it – which won’t take long – you won’t want to play it again.
See also: Danger Mouse in Making Whoopee.
Danger Mouse in Making Whoopee
(Creative Sparks, 1985)
Danger Mouse has just received a telegram informing him of Baron Greenback’s latest plan to take over the world. The Baron is manufacturing whoopee cushions to place in every seat in the United Nations building. The chaos that will ensue at the next meeting will allow him to become the leader of the world! Danger Mouse must travel around Chicago in his aerocar and shut down the Baron’s network of electricity stations and gas manufacturing plants. Chicago is represented as a gigantic maze which is shown on the screen, and if you head towards the dead ends, you will enter either a store room where you can exchange objects, or one of the factories where you must reach the top of the screen while avoiding the obstacles. The game overall is better than Danger Mouse’s previous outing, but driving around Chicago becomes rather monotonous.
See also: Danger Mouse in Double Trouble.
Danger Street
(Chip, 1987)
New York in 2017 is overrun with criminals, and you have decided to rid the city of them once and for all. Each level consists of a section of the city which can be scrolled horizontally. Every so often, one or more criminals will appear from a window, manhole or car and fire their weapons at you, and you must aim your crosshairs at them and retaliate. If you’re shot too many times, the game is over. This is a fairly simplistic target shooting game, but it’s actually not bad at all. The graphics are colourful, if not spectacular, although the sound effects aren’t particularly realistic. Having only one life is also a bit annoying, and there’s no energy bar either – although this only serves to enhance the tension! Overall, this is a fairly good game if you’re looking for a quick blast.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by: Xyphoe.
Dark Century involves you guiding your squad of super tanks into a face-off against the enemy’s team. The game itself is quite boring; you wander around glancing at the scanner hoping to lock on to the enemy. The game plays in a 3D environment – or rather, scaled sprites move along a bare battleground. While the graphics are OK and the presentation is impressive, it just isn’t a game you will want to stay with. Just watch the demo mode and you will realise this is a bland game indeed. There’s a great tune that plays throughout, though. A pointless attempt at converting a poorly rated 16-bit game.
Dark Fusion
(Gremlin Graphics, 1988)
Only the elite may join the Guardian Warriors, and those who wish to join must pass a test. Four levels of non-stop shoot-’em-up action, each consisting of three different types of gameplay, await you. The ‘combat zone’ is a platform game, the ‘flight zone’ is a horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-up in a spaceship, and the ‘alien zone’ again sees you in a spaceship, but battling a single enormous monster. There’s nothing new here in terms of gameplay, although the graphics are absolutely beautiful, and the loading screen is marvellous. However, the music is annoying and the gameplay is maddeningly difficult as your energy is drained very quickly. I certainly won’t be joining the Guardian Warriors soon!
Dark Knight: Shadow of Madness
(Mananuk, 2024)
A group of terrorists has unleashed a virus on the city and kidnapped a team of scientists who have the capability to create an antidote. It’s up to the Dark Knight to rescue the scientists and save the citizens from a terrible fate. This is a platform game that shows clear Batman influences. In the first level, you must find and free all the hostages. Once you’ve done that, it’s on to a driving section where you must collect explosives lying on the road. The third level sees you searching for a sample of the virus to bring back to the scientists, and in the fourth and final level, you confront the leader of the terrorists, who looks suspiciously like the Joker. The graphics are reasonable if basic, and while the music on the menu is good, the sound effects are functional. It’s a decent if unspectacular game, and the ability to cling to walls and perform ‘double jumps’ provides something different to the standard platforming fare.
Is this another fantasy masterpiece from Mike Singleton? Not quite. The pace of play is a little slow and the graphics should have been better. There are adventure games on the CPC with better walking animation and scrolling. Perhaps this is by design (you’re wearing armour, after all). This game is more strategy than adventure, though. You are assigned a team of warriors who all have different statistics and abilities. You’re able to assign them commands and watch as the combat unfolds with plenty of weapon-on-weapon action. It’s quite a novel game and there are many different actions available, including casting spells, bribery and insults to name a few. Jumping from character to character might not be everyone’s cup of tea, mind, as they look to defeat the game’s other factions. It’s certainly an interesting game and one that should at least be experienced once.
Using Freescape, this took 3D gaming to a whole new level when it was released. In a battle against time, you have to negotiate your way around the surface of the moon Tricuspid, destroying ECDs that are powering up an enormous doomsday weapon that is targeted at the planet Evath. Confronting you are a myriad of fiendish puzzles which must be solved in order to complete your mission. Admittedly the sound is poor and there is no music but when you consider what was achieved this remains a seminal game.
See also: Driller.
Take to the stars in the LIAR with your mission to liberate the galaxy from the Evil Lord’s empire. What at first appears to be a linear and somewhat pointless shoot-’em-up reveals itself to be a far more complex affair when you start to dig around the options and work out what you are supposed to be doing (and reduce the initial difficulty level!). Use warp gates to move your way around the galaxy and take out the enemy’s military strongholds on the planet surfaces. Navigating your way through the warp gates is a frustrating experience, though, and the game boasts only crude graphics. Getting to a planet, let alone liberating it, is something of an achievement. Continued efforts will be rewarded but once you’ve reached your first planet, you’ve seen everything the game has to offer, and there are much better 3D shooters out there.
See also: Forbidden Planet.
Darkman
(Ocean, 1991)
Scientist Peyton Westlake was trying to develop a synthetic skin, when gangsters beat him up and demolished his laboratory, leaving him with terrible facial scarring. Now he seeks revenge upon those who destroyed his work and his life, and rescue his girlfriend, Julie Hastings, from the clutches of Louis Strack. This game follows the events of the film over six levels, and mixes platform and beat-’em-up elements. There are also some utterly pointless sub-games between levels where you take photos of faces in an attempt to create a mask. The graphics are wonderful and the tune on the menu is very atmospheric. Unfortunately the difficulty level is too high; you are only given one life, and completing the first level alone takes a lot of practice.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by: Axelino, jgonza, Retro Danuart, Xyphoe.