Time to catch up with our 2 favourite barg hunters, JON PILLAR and RICH PELLEY, as we fix on our helmets and drop down deep...
BARGAIN BASEMENT
CodeMasters
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley
Remember Dizzy? Remember Treasure Island Dizzy? Remember Fantasy World Dizzy? Well, you should. And now, here'd the 4th Dizzy game in the series (not counting Fast Food and Kwik Snax of course which were arcade games and so completely different) - Magicland Dizzy, which is simply more of the same, but what the heck, eh?
Evil Wizard Zaks is back, and has turned the Yolkfolk, Daisy, Dora, Dylan, Denzil and Grand Dizzy into strange creatures and has teleported them to Magicland - a bit of a downer really because you, as Dizzy, have to go and get them back. Once again the game consists of you walking and jumping through a platform-and-ladders flip-screen maze, solving puzzles to progress further this time with the added task of locating the individual Yolkfolk (who have been turned into everything from bushes to a huge block of ice) and working out how to turn them back to normal. Predictably, this is no mean feat because if you're not careful, you'll impale yourself on a nearby bat, or accidentally fall down a well, or drown, or jump into a monster, or bump into a killer rat, or do something equally silly if you don't time it quite right on the old jump button.
Fortunately, you do have three lives to begin with, and your energy can be replenished by collecting diamonds on the way. Oh. I think you also need to collect enough diamonds to proceed further into the game, but don't quote me on that.
The puzzles aren't overly complicated, being a case of using the appropriate object at the appropriate time - the tricky part is actually to have found and be carrying the correct object at the right time. As in Fant. World Diz, you can hold three objects at once - but this does mean you get an annoying menu system every time you want to do something and often spend hours piddling about with it trying to get it to do what you want. But that's a minor point, as the game really is a bit of a spanker.
Once again the graphics are cute city, and the overall gameplay is practically the same, although it's got a bit of a different 'feel' to it 'cos I think this one was written by a different bloke, although don't quote me on that one either. It's quite addictive too as each go you usually meet your fate realising what you should have done instead to avoid dying, so you'll jump at the chance for another go. You can of course cheat and call the 0898 Dizzy helpline (33p per minute off peak, 44p per minute at all other times), although I think I mis-dialed, because when Lusty Linda picked up the phone and invited to reveal all, I'm sure she wasn't talking about how to complete a computer game.
But anyway, if you're a Dizzy fan then you'll no doubt have bought this one already, but it you're not then go on - buy it anyway - it's a corker.
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