Alessandro Grussu


Tiki Taca
By Climacus
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Al's Spectrum Annual 2020

Tiki Taca

There is no Spectrum aficionado who does not know Atic Atac. Well, thanks to Climacus and Errazkin, there is now Tiki Taca, or Atic Atac in isometric 3D. This remake of the famous Ultimate title reprises the layout of the rooms, doors and secret passages of the original, thus making the transition to the new point of view less unsettling to those who already played it, and perhaps completed it.

Of course, the aim of the game is also the same as the 1983 title: to find the three parts of the large key necessary to open the door of the castle, infested with hostile presences, that we recklessly sneaked in. The castle is spread over several floors, from the attic - where there is always a part of the key - to the basement, where large mushrooms, lethal when touched, are scattered.

The three playing characters, namely the knight, the magician and the servant, have been kept, as well as the possibility of exploiting the respective secret passages, i.e. the grandfather clock, the bookcase and the barrel. Even the roast chicken indicating the life force has been rendered in isometric 3D.

Tiki Taca

Tiki Taca is less frantic and anxiety-inducing than Atic Atac: sprites are a little slower, doors open and close much faster than in the original game, and energy drops less conspicuously when you hit a monster.

Of course, this operation also involved some limitations. The stairs have been replaced by the animation of an elevator; the characters all fire the same weapon; the sprites can only move horizontally and vertically; colours have completely disappeared with the exception of two squares located on the sides of the doors to indicate the key which opens them.

Nothwithstanding these small compromises, Tiki Taca is a great success, a faithful and enjoyable reinterpretation of a title that made history.

Alessandro Grussu

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