Whooo, it's a ghostie! After the success of Blinky's Scary School, our paranormal prankster pal's back to spook us once more. Mark Caswell throws a sheet over his bonce and trips over 'cos he forgot to cut eyeholes (what a twit - Ed)...
Zeppelin
£3.99 cass
Arthur J Hackensack's a very nasty, power-mad billionaire who craves world domination. To this end he's kidnapped the good Professor Frobisher Goonhilly and forced him to build a negative psyche machine. Using its strange matter-warping properties, Hackensack has changed the isle of Wight into a large custard slice (as you do - Ed)!
City after city has been turned into weird and amusing shapes to demonstrate Hackensack's evil intent. With conventional forces useless against psychic energy, the World Government's looked to a new breed of hero, and so Blinky, spooky star agent of SPECTRE (Society for the Prevention of Ectoplasmic Crime, Telekinetic misuse and Reality Endangerment), is immediately put on the case.
WHO YA GONNA CALL?
Armed only with an ectoplasmic gun and a case full of disguises, the courageous spook is parachuted onto the deck of Hackensack's base ship, the newly raised SS Titanic. As old sheet-head leaps from platform to platform he's attacked by a wide range of fearsome creatures. Each hit knocks down Blinky's energy bar so shoot first and ask questions later. If Blinky loses all his lives it's Game Over, but could someone please tell me how on earth you kill a ghost? (Give him plenty of exorcise? - Ed.)
The first scene's on board the Titanic, and the aim's to collect musical notes and take them to the whistle on the boiler tunnel. This gives you access to the bridge and diving gear used to take a short swim in the Atlantic Ocean.
DIZZY AND BLINKY CLASH!
Will Blinky become as popular as Dizzy (cue chorus of 'Dizzy, my head is spinning...')? if there's a third game and it's as good as this, I'd say a resounding YES. Puzzle fans as well as platform junkies will love Titanic Blinky - it's fun, fun, fun all the way.
The puzzles are thankfully fairly simple to solve; even a thicko like me (your words, Caswell - Ed) managed to get a fair way into the game on my first couple of attempts.
Graphically, Titanic Blinky's little short of brilliant. The sprites are all big and bold with bucketfulls of colour splashed around. There's the odd bit of colour clash but this doesn't affect the playability. Despite being a scary ghost, Blinky's a cuddly little critter, but some of the creatures wouldn't look out of place in Stephen King's worst nightmare.
So move over Dizzy, Titanic Blinky is on your tail and gunning for your crown. Go out and buy this game, now - it's well worth the measly asking price.
MARK [85%]
Ooo! Scary stuff, this. Lots of ghostly goings on with the Number One spook. After popping all the nasties in his Scary School, the little apparition is back with a new adventure set on the spooky SS Titanic. This game's not as immediately appealing as Scary School but once you suss out what's going on you find yourself hooked. The artist for the Blinky games has put lots of colour into the graphics and doesn't worry about clash, but this doesn't spoil the action at all. The many levels are going to keep me playing for a long time; from collecting notes and creating a tune to swimming around underneath the Titanic, it's loads of fun. I loved the original game to death and the sequel is just as enjoyable.
NICK [82%]
Zeppelin
£3.99 cass
Reviewer: James Leach
1912 was a pretty bad year for ocean travel. Loads of rich people set sail for America, and, spookily enough, they never actually got there. Mister Iceberg got in the way.
Up until now, people have left the grand ocean liner pretty much alone (except for those guys who went to visit it in a weird little diving bell), but Zeppelin have decided it's the place to set a ghostly platform game.
Which brings us fairly neatly to Blinky. He's a troubleshooting, nice sort of ghost who, instead of haunting people and being really scary, helps those who ask him nicely enough. And Mr Arthur J Hackensack is asking nicely enough.
Which brings us fairly neatly to Arthur J Hackensack. He is an incredibly rich old guy who's had a burning desire to raise the Titanic. Now he's managed to get the money and the heavy lifting equipment to do it, so up it comes. However he's forgotten something pretty important.
Ghosts. Hideous, terrifying ghosts. Of coarse there are bound to be loads of spectres wandering its flooded decks. When ArthurJ Hackensack realised thism he got on the phone to Blinky.
Which brings us rather raggedly to you. You have to guide Blinky all over the ship, eradicating the ghosts and making the place fit for human habitation once again. Its a tough job, you can bet your bottom dollar on that, 'cos the ships pretty darn big.
ARE THERE CREEPY CRAWLIES TOO?
Oh absolutely. As you can imagine, if you leave a large ship at the bottom of the sea for 80 years, a lot of slimey, smelly fishy things are going to move in and make it their home. Snails (special underwater ones, presumably), flapping fish and sea birds (above the waterline) have all taken up residence.
So what we've got here is a large platform game with loads of monsters and places to explore. What you have to do is collect notes. You drop these into the funnel, and when you've got enough you can get diving apparatus to explore the underwater levels.
Fine, but the question on everybody's lips is "What happened to Lord Lucan?" (No it isn't, it's "Is Titanic Blinky any good?" Ed) Oh yes, that's right.
IS TITANIC BLINKY ANY GOOD?
Well, the answer to that is yes, mon petit chickadees. Yes, it's pretty spunky, and here's why; the game is very quick, responsive and smooth. It's cram-jam packed with details, the backgrounds are filled with bits and bobs which, no doubt, were seen on the real Titanic, and all the creatures and stuff that you meet look pretty darn spiffy as well.
The only thing with Titanic Blinky is that it's pretty tough. He's a big sprite and there really isn't much space on the screen so you keep getting killed.
Although he's a big character and keeps on bumping into things, the collision detection, unlike the original Titanic, is very good. I'm glad it's not a port from the Amstrad, so I don't have that sinking feeling, and it's also big enough to play for ages. Here you can just see the tip of the iceberg. Yes, it's cool and hard, and I hope I'm not going overboard when I say it deserves 88°. Cos it does. Great gags, eh?
Label: Zeppelin
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Cyril Hirelle
It's not every day you encounter a friendly ghost but then it's not every day you encounter any sort of ghost! So seeing one with a big smile, eyes the size of a page 3 girl's best assets and going by the name of Mr. Blinky came as a bit of a surprise to me.
Agent Blinky is part of the Society for the Prevention of Ectoplasmic Crime, Telekinetic misuse a Reality Endangerment. And if you a actually pronounce that you should find the game relatively easy to play. Blinky (super agent) is basically out to stop Arthur J Hackensack (eccentric billionaire) from taking over the world.
All this takes place around the newly raised, amazingly colourful and clear surroundings of the infamous Titanic where Blinky has to jump, climb, shoot, collect tokens and solve the odd puzzle or two to achieve his goal.
Once he has collected as many tokens as possible on a particular level he then floats, as ghosts do, off to another section of the ship. At one point you even get to swim under the ship, as Blinky dons his diving gear. This is a problem, I never knew that ghosts needed diving gear. After all they don't actually breath do they? They are dead, aren't they?
Blinky has also been blessed with the God given greatness of living in a world with no sound except for a merry little tune, played once he's collected his quota of tokens for each level.
And that's really it! Titanic Blinky is all about idling around the biggest failure in the history of shipping, shooting some very odd looking creatures and collecting tons of tokens. It's not really a classic and it wouldn't get into my top ten games of the year but I have this weird tingling feeling that some of you will like Titanic Bllnky... or is it just the dog licking my feet again.
ALAN:
Touring around a ship for hours on end is not really my idea of fun and that's where Blinky falls down. Jumping up and down, up and down, up and down collecting tokens which never seem to have any really affect on the game can give you the same feeling you'd get if you watched the Onedin Line while having a Ken Dodd album pumped into your ears.
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