Mr Freeze
(Firebird, 1984)
Mr Freeze is inside a refrigerator which needs to be de-iced. There is a de-icer in each of the six compartments, which Mr Freeze can reach only by negotiating the platforms and ladders, and avoiding the robots. This is a very strange fridge indeed! Some robots wander left and right across the platforms and can be frightened off with your flamethrower, but there is another robot on the ceiling which moves towards you and fires lasers at you when you climb a ladder; you’ll need to work out how it moves in order to get up and down safely. This is an old game, so the graphics and music are nothing special at all, and the gameplay isn’t all that interesting. It might have been OK when it was originally released, but it hasn’t stood the test of time well.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World,
ChinnyVision,
Novabug (gameplay),
Novabug (longplay).
Mister Gas
(Proein Soft Line, 1989)
Mr Gas is a bubble who was destined to enjoy life in a bottle of cava (a type of Spanish sparkling wine). But he’s trapped inside a soda water factory and will end up inside a soda water bottle instead! This cannot be allowed to happen, so Mr Gas must escape. The only way out of the factory is a pipe, but it’s blocked, and you must roam the factory and search for the four objects that are required to turn the rusty tap that opens the gateway to freedom, while avoiding the energy-sapping crabs, birds, robots and ventilation shafts. Sadly, this is a terrible game with awful, monochrome graphics and no sound effects whatsoever, which only adds to the boredom and monotony of searching the (very large) factory for the four objects.
Mr Heli is a coin-op conversion in which you guide a cross between a robot and a helicopter through three different levels. As usual, your task involves shooting down almost everything you come across while you keep dodging a variety of bullets and missiles. The cheerful tune and the cute graphics are likely to fool the player but beware, Mr Heli isn’t an easy game and you’d better use the power-ups that come up from time to time wisely. To sum up, a good shoot-’em-up that could have been better if the levels weren’t all too similar.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
ChinnyVision,
Xyphoe.
Mr Pingo
(Rainbow Arts, 1986)
This is a below-average clone of the classic arcade game Pengo, in which a penguin pushes blocks of ice to kill the enemies, while trying to push parts of a diamond together. As well as throwing ice at the Sno-Bees (the enemies), you can also shake the boundary wall to stun them. However, as soon as you kill a Sno-Bee, another will appear. The early levels are easy, but as you progress, the Sno-Bees move faster and it’s more difficult to escape from them. The graphics do their job, and the tune is very jolly, but every level is almost exactly the same as the previous one and things quickly become boring.
Mr Weems and the She Vampires
(Piranha, 1987)
Mr Weems delves into the realms of the lair of the She Vampires in his quest to destroy the Great She Vampire. There are six levels, each of which bristles with vampires, Frankenstein’s monsters and She Vampires, and contact with any of them reduces Mr Weems’ blood count. Fortunately, there are bottles of blood to be collected, and you’ll also find keys and garlic bombs lying about. You’ve also got to find a wooden box on each level, or you’ll be unable to kill the Great She Vampire – if you manage to meet her. Both the graphics and sound effects in this game are appalling, which lets it down an awful lot. Another thing – it’s much easier to play this game using the joystick.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
ChinnyVision.
Mr Wino
(Silverbird, 1988)
Willy Wino is clearing all the bottles away after a massive booze-up. Having recovered from a hangover, he sets about gathering the bottles and avoiding aliens and spikes. You don’t actually have to collect all the bottles, although you might need to collect all the bottles on a screen to open some doors. It’s a simple and colourful platform game that is really rather enjoyable at first, and the sound effects are jolly, too. Once you reach the second level, this enjoyment disappears as you discover that it’s too difficult.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World.
Mr Wong’s Loopy Laundry
(Amsoft/Artic Computing, 1984)
Help Mr Wong run his laundry by negotiating the platforms and ladders, collecting the dirty clothes, and throwing them down the chute to be washed. However, it’s not that easy, because Mr Wong is constantly being chased by a possessed iron, a sack of dirty laundry, and a cluster of soap bubbles. Well, it is a loopy laundry, after all! Fortunately, he can fire starch at the enemies to freeze them temporarily, but his supplies are limited, so it must be used sparingly. This is a very early platform game, and it shows. The graphics are very basic, albeit colourful, and the confined playing area makes it quite difficult to dodge the enemies, and each level looks and plays almost identically to the previous one.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World,
ChinnyVision.
If there’s anything good to be said about this game, it’s that it wasn’t programmed by Opera Soft themselves; it was coded by a freelance group. The graphics are average, and so are the scrolling and the movements of your character. Nevertheless, Mithos is so unbelievably difficult right from the start, that nothing else matters about it. Games like this one made quite clear the crisis that Spanish companies were about to undergo at that time.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
jgonza.
You were dropped on the moon against your will (don’t ask me how) and your only chance to return home is to reach the rocket going back to Earth before it takes off. Driving a kind of buggy (which fortunately was shipped with two gun turrets), you must find the key that opens the rocket launchpad and clear your way through strange bouncing and exploding aliens. The game is divided into five parts, which are much alike. The difficulty is well balanced and increases smoothly. You’ll soon figure out that the real point of the game is trying not to run out of fuel. So, you’ll have to keep shooting fuel barrels (!), while jumping over holes and avoiding hostile fire. The realisation is rather good, with colourful graphics and very good scrolling. It’s a pity that the game, though rather difficult, should be so short.
You are the Mobileman, tasked with a mission to clear the catacombs of monsters, acid containers and barriers that block your way. You pilot a levi-pod that can move in four directions. Your weapon shoots a certain coloured blast that will only take out monsters of the same colour, so flowers of different colours need to be found to remove other creatures found dwelling in deeper levels. Acid cans act as barriers that can be shot by finding gaps in the walls of the maze. Strangely, the occupants of this underground world love barbecues, and sitting upon one restores your energy! This is an easy game to get into with a balanced difficulty level. It features lovely graphics and a very pleasant tune.