Sinclair User


Bigfoot
By Codemasters
Spectrum 48K/128K/+2/+3

 
Published in Sinclair User #86

Bigfoot

When you're a seven-foot tall hairy anthropoid with a thick skull and protruding jaw, you don't get much choice when it comes to the girlies (you're right I don't - JD); so in this game our Bigfoot gets understandably mad when his beloved is kidnapped and locked in a cage. Cue lots of whacky hilarious zany spoffy madcap (that's enough adjectives - GT) adventures as the hairy hunk tries to find his shaggy sweetheart.

As you'd expect from any Codemasters game, there's a fair amount of programming expertise and fairly complex gameplay of the find-oneobject-and-stick-it-in-another-object variety. The graphics, though, aren't too hot; despite a choice of display modes (full colour, half colour and mono), the backgrounds are just too bland to raise much excitement. Bigfoot himself is reasonably well drawn and animated, but tends to get lost among the backgrounds if you're in colour mode.

For some reason, many of the clues you need to solve the puzzles are given away in the instructions. As you swing through caverns and villages, your aim is to blow open Mrs Bigfoot's cage using TNT. But to do this you need to repair a broken power cable, collect six pieces of fuse wire, cut a piece of wire from a neon sign, and so on...

Bigfoot

Along the way you have to jump over lakes of bubbling lava, throw rocks at swarms of bees, and keep picking up fairy cakes and spinach to pep up your energy. Yes, I know, it's all a bit jackanory isn't it.

One slightly irritating aspect of the game is the object handling menu; it's activated by using DOWN/FIRE, and gives you the options of picking up, putting down, or selecting an object for use: For some reason I found it difficult to get out of the menu once I wanted to return to the game; the joystick movement you feel OUGHT to do the job, doesn't. Still, it works, though it's a bit fiddly.

Sound is unremarkable; perhaps a more skilled soundtrack programmer could have given the game a bit more gloss, but it wouldn't have added to the overall playability. Bigfoot is a pretty minor game, and seems to be very easy to solve. But it's not hideously bad and has a few amusing moments, so check it out if you're starved for entertainment.

Overall Summary

Unremarkable comedy arcade-adventure.

Chris Jenkins

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