Durell
£9.95
Dragons roll! (Er... shouldn't that be wagons?) Not in this adventure, bucko. You play the part of a v. green and mega scaly dragon, called Thanatos the Destroyer. You are in total conflict with the forces of the Underworld, and we ain't talking British Rail employees here... although they're pretty fierce. No sir, we mean real dribbling hordes of evil stuff. Nasty little goblins fresh from Mischa and Stephen's jokebook, killer bees from T'zer's bonnet (Oi! T'zer), falling rocks bigger than Ed's dandruff... (Smack!) You must find the beautiful Eros (wahay!) for she is the only one who can guide you to the book of spells and back to the magic cauldron...
Gosh, this is heady stuff, all this dragonlore. Sounds like a really drippy idea for a game, like maybe the Orpheus effort about fairies? No way, Jose! This is a truly original idea for an arcade game, and so well executed. The graphics are stunning, from the flight/walk/ swim animation of the dragon, to the way the background moves in 3D - the objects in the foreground move faster than the objects in the background. Sounds simple, looks marvellous.
The only thing you must be very careful of is over-exerting your dragon. You can see his little heart pumping in one corner of the screen and if he looks to be heading for a rupture you must land and rest, or take the consequences. It's a race against time, but you must look after your dragon if you want to finish the course.
So, okay wiseguy, why is this game so much fun? Hmmm? I'll tell you. No other game lets you fly a dragon. No other game lets you fly along blasting the enemy with flames from your nostrils. It's an original premise but it would be nothing if it weren't so nicely done. The game just oozes atmosphere, and that's a quality all megagames have.
BARGAIN BASEMENT
A bumper New Year collection of cheapie rubbish (whoops!) from that king of the skin-flints, Marcus Berkmann, and his preppy pauper (ha ha) Jonathan Davies.
Encore
£2.99
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies
Here's a novel idea - a re-release. An old Durell one this time, and quite good, considering. There's no plot or anything, so it's a case of plunging in head first. Let's start with the dragon. He's about half a screen long, has the usual fiery breath, flappy wings and pointy tail, and can walk along or fly. As is normally the case, your job as the aforementioned draconic beast is to eat people, burn things down and attack castles with the ultimate goal of rescuing a maiden.
Being half a screen long, the dragon makes an impressive central character. Damned impressive, in fact. The parallax scrolling is pretty triff too, especially the paths leading up to castles in the distance which skim past very effectively. Otherwise, the graphics are functional and the only sound is a gently throbbing heartbeat (let this get too rapid and you'll suffer a mid-air heart attack).
As for the fun factor, Thanatos is refreshingly different. It's full of delightful little touches, like the ability to deposit rocks on people's heads, burn them and drop them from great heights. Good stuff. Gosh, yes.
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