Metropolis
(The Power House, 1988)
Moonboots is an explorer who has somehow managed to end up lost in Metropolis. Now he has to find his spaceship and return to his home on the moon. From the moment you start playing this game, it’s clear that it was influenced by the Wally Week series of games, as the style of gameplay is exactly the same – walking around collecting objects (and you can only carry two at a time) and using them to reach new locations or perform tasks. Unfortunately, it’s absolutely horrible to play. For a start, the graphics are seriously ugly. It’s a Spectrum port, complete with colour clash as well, and Moonboots walks very slowly, so it takes ages to walk from one place to another. This is a very poor and very dull game which will seriously test your patience if you play it!
Watch a YouTube video of this game by: XeNoMoRPH.
Metrópolis
(Topo Soft, 1989)
Following a nuclear holocaust, Metrópolis is the last city remaining on Earth. However, anarchy reigns in the city, and a gang called the Townsmen have decided to restore law and order. You are their leader Geitor, and they are relying on you. You must explore the city, and armed only with a sword and shield, you must engage in battle with the various criminals that inhabit the city. However, your main goal is to find five tanks and destroy them by staying within their range of fire until they run out of ammunition! Unfortunately, this platform game is quite disappointing. The graphics are of a high standard, but there are hardly any sound effects and the game moves at a very slow pace indeed. You also have only one life, and it’s too easy to mistime a swipe of your sword and lose a lot of energy against an enemy.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by: jgonza.
- Knowledge of French is required in order to play this game properly.
There have been several murders on the little island of Sark, a peaceful place between France and Britain. As a renowned inspector, you’re sent there to investigate the case. The problem is that you have only one day to find the murderer! This is the third murder mystery adventure from Cobra Soft, and the graphics are rather good, but the sound effects are very scarce – but does it really matter in this kind of game? The biggest flaw of the game is its difficulty. You must be really lucky to find any clues, because the time goes by so fast! It’s a really interesting game, anyway.
Méwilo
(Coktel Vision, 1987)
- Knowledge of French is required in order to play this game properly.
As an expert in paranormal events, you have travelled to the French island of Martinique in the Caribbean at the request of Michel Hubert-Destouches, who believes that his residence is haunted by some sort of zombie. It is your task to solve the mystery and find out what is causing these strange events. The story of the development of this adventure is interesting in that it was designed by a man and a woman from Martinique, at a time when the video game industry was dominated by white men. As you progress, the game tells the history of Martinique, with a focus on the injustice of slavery. However, upon playing it, it feels more like a traditional story than a proper adventure game, as it’s very linear and there are no opportunities to explore different paths. As for the graphics, they are colourful but rather blocky and they look a bit messy.
In this game, you drive a magnetic tank and you must destroy the entity that has taken control of a space station. When you move, your tank faces the direction you want to go, but it needs time to rotate. There is almost no gravity, so you can’t stop easily, and you have to anticipate each of your moves. There are a lot of laser beams and other traps that will destroy you if you make any wrong moves... To make things harder still, you’ll have to move over icy narrow bridges, and you’ve got only one life! You’ll also have to activate switches to open doors and find lifts to reach the platforms. Well, there are many things to discover in this great game. The isometric graphics are really good, the sound effects are OK, and the space station is huge. A very addictive game!
Miami Cobra GT
(Players, 1991)
Race your Mustang Cobra around eight tracks. Each track is divided into four stages, although you don’t have to reach every stage within a certain time; your time limit is for all four stages. To help you along, you’ve also got a supply of turbos, although it’s best to use them cautiously or you’ll crash off the circuit and lose time. The graphics are simple and colourful, and the colours change when you reach a new stage. However, the scenery stays more or less the same on each level. It’s just a rather average driving game, really.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by: ChinnyVision, Xyphoe.
Miami Dice
(Bug-Byte, 1986)
Craps is a casino game with an extremely complex betting system. Several players gather around a craps table, throw dice and bet on the outcome. If a player rolls 7 or 11 (a natural) on their first roll, they win; if they roll 2, 3 or 12 (craps), they lose. Any other number rolled is a point, and the player rolls again until they roll the same point (meaning that they win) or a 7 (meaning that they lose). If that wasn’t complex enough, there are all sorts of bets you can place – pass line bets, don’t pass line bets, come bets, don’t come bets, place bets, field bets, big 6 and big 8 bets, and proposition bets. The graphics are very good and the characters are wonderfully animated, and the music is entertaining as well, but unless you can make sense of the betting system (and I can’t), you won’t enjoy this game.
Based around the 1980s cop show of the same name, this game is split into two very different parts. You start off the game driving around Miami in your fancy car, avoiding other traffic and shooting out the window at other cars, but pull up outside one of the many trouble hot-spots (places like Joe’s Café) and the game goes into shoot-’em-up mode as you wander through the building, taking out the bad guys or interrogating them. It’s a good idea, but it doesn’t really work, as the driving bits are really difficult, and nine times out of ten, you’ll enter a building to find the bad guys have just left, leading to a lot of aimless driving. The graphics, particularly in the driving parts, are really bland and uninspired, and the sound is little better. A disappointing cash-in on a great TV show.
Four nasty witches in the pay of the evil Ogre King have broken Merlin the Magician’s magic wand in four pieces and cast an evil spell over Disneyland. Mickey Mouse has come to the rescue. Each piece is hidden at the top of the four towers of Disney Castle, each of which are divided into platforms connected by ladders. Patrolling these are the minions of the Ogre King: trolls and ghosts that the world’s favourite talking rodent can dispatch with his hammer and water pistol. Most platforms contain a door to varying sub-games which all have to be completed to finish a tower. Nice colourful graphics in a pleasant enough puzzle/platform game done in the style of Disney.
Micro Mouse
(Mastertronic, 1989)
Microscopic robots are wreaking havoc within a computer circuit, and you have to repair the damage they leave behind. The robots scrub the metal off the tracks, and you have to go to one of the red crosses marked on the board to pick up the correct piece to fix the damaged part. If everything’s all right, you can make your escape to bottom of the circuit and on to the next level. They’re all pretty much the same, though, and you can often complete a level within a minute or two if you’re quick. The graphics are nice, albeit garish at times, but the game soon becomes repetitive.