Pingu Soccer is an unusual game where two penguins try to score goals on a frozen ice rink! It is without doubt an original idea. The game features practice, tournament and multi-player modes. You will definitely need to practice before beginning the tournament because the artificial intelligence of the computer opponents is unusually capable and the computer will demean you! The graphics are basic and could be better. Nevertheless, the frame rate is fast and smooth. A tune plays throughout the game without any additional effects. The gameplay is highly challenging and interesting. Your computer opponents will let no opportunities go to waste, and they employ many different strategies. The two-player mode is very entertaining! Overall, an original and engaging idea.
The main thing this game gets right is the graphics. If the Pink Panther was going to appear on the CPC then Mode 0 would have to be used and that’s what’s been done. Pink is instantly recognisable. On the music front it’s a shame the theme tune isn’t there, but what music is included suits the game. The Pink Panther is in need of a job, so he takes on a role as a butler – but this is only a scheme to steal from his wealthy clients who end up being sleepwalkers! You guide the Pink Panther around mansions taking loot, but you also need to ensure that your client doesn’t wake, by placing items and guiding them away from accidents. It’s a nice idea and feels ahead of its time but it’s ruined by awkward controls.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by: Amstrad CPC World.
Good old Moritz, the best dog in the world, is in the pet clinic. He gets lots of pills and injections. As a result he has illusions and strange dreams: hunting for bones, being hunted himself by crazy postmen, bloodsucking vampires, etc. When he has collected all the bones, he has to meet ‘The Doctor’ in the TARDIS. Will Moritz find his way out and enjoy a happy end? This is an old-styled arcade game in the style of Roland in Time and Manic Miner. You take control of Moritz and your objective is to gather bones so that the TARDIS opens and you can go to the next screen. The graphics are basic but colourful and the atmosphere greatly resembles the pre-1984 gaming era. The levels are imaginatively designed and the gameplay is really interesting. Overall, it’s a pleasant game which offers enjoyment and the original feeling of old-styled arcades!
See also: Moritz on the Autobahn, Moritz the Striker.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by: Saberman.
Pipe Mania
(Empire, 1990)
This is a marvellous puzzle game where you piece together random sections of pipes on a board to allow the slime to flow through it. If it doesn’t flow through enough sections on each level, the game is over! There are also bonus levels where instead of placing pipes on a board, you drop them from the sky, Tetris-style. The graphics do their job – they don’t have to be awesome for this type of game – but there’s no music and few sound effects. Even so, this is a great game which is made even better by a password for every five levels so you don’t have to go through the earlier levels every time.
Pirates!
(MicroProse, 1987)
Fancy being a pirate in the 16th and 17th centuries, sailing across the Spanish Main? This all-time classic sees you as either an English, French, Dutch or Spanish adventurer, captaining a ship and sailing to and from towns, trying to earn prestige by capturing and plundering enemy ships and towns. You also have to visit taverns to recruit men for your voyages, and you can trade goods with local merchants as well. During the course of your travels, you may also find members of your family and uncover lost treasure! Although it can be rather slow at times, this is a truly awesome game which gives you total freedom to do whatever you want. Being a pirate has never been so much fun, and I cannot do this game justice in such a small space. You really must try it out for yourself!
Piso Zero
(Zigurat, 1991)
An army led by the Cadwaladwr brothers has invaded the headquarters of RBA and taken the staff hostage, and you must single-handedly rescue as many of them as you can from each building. There are two types of staff – the glamorous secretaries, and the chiefs, who carry briefcases containing important documents. Once you’ve located a hostage, you must guide them to the exit. You only need to rescue one chief in order to progress to the next building, although rescuing additional staff earns more points. Of course, you must also dodge the Cadwaladwr brother’s gun-toting followers. This game is frustrating to play. Its random nature means that you can’t tell if the next hostage to appear will be a chief or a secretary, and it’s often hard to distinguish bullets from the background.
Pit-Fighter
(Domark, 1991)
Pit-fighting is an illegal ‘sport’ where two burly men fight each other to the death. There are eight contestants you must face, and you can choose from one of three fighters – Buzz, an ex-pro-wrestler; Ty, a kick boxer; and Kato, a karate expert. I’m not into beat-’em-ups, though, and this is certainly one of the worst ones that I’ve seen, with awful, blocky, Spectrum-like graphics and slow, jerky scrolling. It’s far too easy as well – that is, if you can be bothered to slog it out. In short, it’s the pits (groan)!
Watch YouTube videos of this game by: ChinnyVision, Novabug, Xyphoe.
This is a Picross puzzle-solving game in which the player needs to fill nonograms which consist of a grid, with numbers on the sides of the grid detailing how many squares need to be filled in that row or column. The graphics are basic with only four colours used, and the sound is just a beep. The grab factor depends on whether you love or hate this style of game. Before playing it, you need to consider only one thing: do you like solving Picross puzzles? If your answer is yes, load the game and you will enjoy it. If your answer is no, read this review and try the game at least once!
Planet of Death
(Paxman Promotions, 1985)
You are stranded on an alien planet, and you must locate your spaceship, which has been captured and disabled. Also known as Adventure ‘A’, this is the first in a series of eight text adventures that were originally released for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum between 1981 and 1985. The fact that it made its debut on the ZX81 gives you a large hint that it’s extremely basic and unsophisticated. The plot is unoriginal, there are few locations, the parser is very limited, and there aren’t many puzzles to solve. Even the text is displayed entirely in capital letters and without apostrophes – a throwback to the ZX81’s very limited character set. It feels like a type-in listing from a magazine, and I can’t understand why anyone considered it a good idea to convert it to the CPC.
See also: Inca Curse.
Planetfall
(Infocom, 1986)
You’re a lowly Ensign Seventh Class on board the Stellar Patrol Ship Feinstein, when the ship is torn apart by an explosion. You escape to a nearby planet, and end up in a deserted complex. As you explore your surroundings, you eventually learn that all its inhabitants died from a nasty disease – and now you’re infected as well, and must find a way of curing it. This is a thoroughly engrossing text adventure, which features the adorable robot Floyd, who becomes your companion through much of the game. The constant need to obtain food can be a bit irritating, and you’ll need a lot of access cards to explore several areas of the complex, but the scenario is fascinating and the game is suitable for inexperienced adventurers.
See also: Stationfall.