ZX Computing


Bruce Lee

Publisher: U. S. Gold
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in ZX Computing #19

Bruce Lee

I enjoyed playing this quite a lot. Basically, it's just a glorified platform game in which you, Bruce Lee, have to go through the chambers of a Wizard's fortress collecting lanterns which will enable you to continue deeper into the fortress and eventually confront the Wizard himself.

But, what makes this so much more fun than the average platform game is the presence of your two foes, the Ninja and the wobbly Samurai called the Green Yamo. In most games of this type, the monsters which you must avoid are simply sprites moving in a fixed pattern. However, in this game, the Ninja and Yamo are fully animated opponents who chase you all around the temple, the Ninja bashing you over the head with his broken stick, and the Yamo leaping at you with a flying kick.

Of course, you can retaliate with flying and karate chops of your own, and I must admit that I found this the most enjoyable aspect of the game. Working out how to get through the fortress chambers isn't terribly hard, but watching as your Bruce Lee figure leaps across the screen and kicks the Yamo all around the floor is great fun. I got my younger brother to play, using the two player option, and the house resounded to cries of "poke him in the eye" and "kick his head in!", until well after midnight. It's all terribly childish, I know, but great fun nonetheless.

All the figures are very nicely animated and detailed, and you can make out who's who, even when they're all on top of each other, kicking and punching for all they're worth. The chambers that you pass through are all well designed, and the oriental designs make a nice, colourful change from the usual type of graphics in platform games. My only criticism of the game is that your path through the fortress is fixed unlike the rooms in Jet Set Willy which allow you to take any path through the house that you want. Consequently, after a few games it can get a bit boring having to go through the same route time after time, but this is where the combat saves the game from getting stale. Of course, if the fortress were more complicated then the memory wouldn't be available for the combat and animation, so the game as it is probably struck the right balance. Definitely worth getting, I think.