C&VG


Jinn Jenie
By Micromega
Commodore 64

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #40

Jinn Jenie

Another narcissistic arcade game which involves you as the young hero (good looking too, no doubt) trying to liberate the Golden City from the clutches of the ghastly lifreet, whose magical guards protect the city and the palace courtyard.

But for all lifreet's pomp, he can be outwitted. You have your magic carpet which enables you to travel earth-bound or air-bound, but nonetheless, everyone else has the same idea and the finished result is like air traffic control gone wrong.

This game reminds one of the rush-hour, with people and objects rushing in from all sides to knock you out. No sooner do you head towards earth than some bright spark gets the same idea and sends you crash-landing into a horrible, matted looking heap. From that point of view, the graphics are pretty good and you are given a rather becoming turban to war while on your travels.

There are five cities, and to travel around them, you press the fire button. It gets monotonous, unless you like that kind of thing. If you're lucky, you'll get as far as the courtyard wall and hopefully a window will open to let you in, but watch out - the sentries may just pull your ladder away and send you flying.

On top of all this frenzied activity, you must light your torch and set off to find the Magic Jar, the only object capable of eradicating the evil lifreet. But first, you have to find and free the Wise Man - only he can energise the Magic Jar.

Complicated and good fun, if a little expensive, this game is at least original and not guaranteed to bore you to death. The graphics have been carefully done, and it's a good idea to use a joystick as the action is pretty fast.