Label: Gremlin
Author: Holmes, Lloyd, Pridmore
Price: £7.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tamara Howard
Despite suffering the worst loading screen I have ever seen in my entire life, Jack the Nipper II - Coconut Capers is not half bad.
If you thought you'd seen the heights of naughtiness in Jack the Nipper Part 1 - forget it, you ain't seen nothing yet.
In this one, Jack is stranded in the jungle, after baling out of the plane which was deporting him to Australia (or somewhere equally pleasant). The aim is to avoid Dad, vicious birds, rivers, crocodiles, and everything else which makes jungle life strenuous, while doing as much mischief as possible and pushing up the Naughtymeter.
The backgrounds, of crumbling citadels, stone causeways, tropical plants and tangled creepers, are excellent. The characters are good too, with the nappy clad infant Jack particularly appealing (in a horrible sort of way, of course).
Swinging on ropes to avoid hazards. Jack can bounce coconuts off the people or animals he meets or, if he can find a blowpipe, stick darts in embarrassing places. Objects found are placed in one of two pockets (in Jack's nappy?!) - weapons and naughty objects. Jack can only carry one of each at a time.
A list of some of the objects to be found - grease, honey, an onion, woodworm, a shield, and a log - gives you some idea of what Jack can get up to (It does? - Ed). As with the previous Jack titles, though, you have to work most things out for yourself.
The music, Henry Mancini's March of the Baby Elephants, is cleverly done, but not so cleverly that you don't want to use the Off option after a few minutes.
As with most games of this type, my main complaint is that it's much too complicated to solve at one sitting, and there's no game Save option. Just Gremlin being naughty, I suppose.
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