Crash


Captain Fizz Meets The Blasterons
By Psyclapse
Spectrum 128K

 
Published in Crash #66

Captain Fizz Meets The Blaster Trons

Here's a turn up for the books. Psyclapse, the software house which normally concentrates on 16-bit games, suddenly pop up in the Spectrum 'field' with this odd two-player "Gauntlet-esque" game.

'It's double fun and double trouble all the way!' proclaims the jubilant inlay. Hem hem, this is a bijou libette. What we've got here is a split-screen maze game (two players simultaneously), with very tiny graphics (one character square per graphic) and confusing flick-screen movement.

Captain Fizz has to destroy the master computer by eliminating all the alien generators on each of the 20 levels. If you don't, the space station you're on will sun-dive. As you and your mate (Cap'n Fizz has apparently been cloned to work as a stormtrooping double-act) explore the mazes, viewed from overhead, an onslaught of aliens will try to stop you - quite persuasively too - with their megabolt lasers. You've a laser too, so blast 'em back, Cap.

Captain Fizz Meets The Blaster Trons

There are also colour-coded keys which are required to enter and explore rooms within the maze. The main objective on each level is to reach the lifts, transporting you to the next level... and so on till you reach the master computer on level 20.

Puzzles and barriers must be solved and broken down to gradually disarm the planetary defences.

A relatively simple game, but with tricky elements, Captain Fizz obviously hopes to win on the playability rather than the graphics - which have little variety throughout and are mainly 8x8 pixels. Unfortunately, it doesn't work loo well and left me unexcited. Even at its best, with two-players, it remains extraordinarily average. A disappointing release from what is actually a decent software house.

Mike

It's coming to something when a programmer using single character graphics can't even scroll a quarter screen gameplay area smoothly. You really do have to see the graphics in Captain Fizz to believe them; I think that any software house expecting people to buy a game that looks like this is off its proverbial rocker. If you're already lucky enough to own a magnifying glass, then Mr Fizz might be worth a look (a very close one!), because it's quite playable if you use your imagination. Value for money is a bit of a joke, I'm afraid. Still, what it amounts to is a poor spacey Gauntlet variant, and a big let down from Psyclapse.

Mike DunnRichard Eddy

Other Spectrum 128K Game Reviews By Mike Dunn


  • Gauntlet Front Cover
    Gauntlet
  • Brian Clough's Football Fortunes Front Cover
    Brian Clough's Football Fortunes
  • League Challenge Front Cover
    League Challenge
  • Cop-Out Front Cover
    Cop-Out
  • Survivor Front Cover
    Survivor
  • Kickboxing Front Cover
    Kickboxing
  • Deflektor Front Cover
    Deflektor
  • Mega Bucks Front Cover
    Mega Bucks
  • Satcom Front Cover
    Satcom
  • Jail Break Front Cover
    Jail Break