Hong Kong Phooey (Amstrad CPC review)

Developer: Richard Morton, Dave Thompson
Publisher: Hi-Tec Software
Released: 1990

Hong Kong Phooey is an action-platformer that was also released on the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.

Your task is to navigate a deserted Docklands warehouse in search of Baron Von Bankjob, who has escaped from jail. To defeat his army of thugs you can use punches and flying kicks, while the platforming segments can be negotiated by holding the fire button + diagonally-Up for a long jump. As a whole, the level design is good with an intricate layout that forces you to explore its rather sizeable scope. Plenty of tricky platforming challenges are available to test your skills, such as manoeuvring on a travelator before leaping over toxic waste, and there's even a section where barrels rain down as you try to climb upwards that's reminiscent of Donkey Kong! (1981, Arcades). However, it's not without its problems. For example, after heading downwards for a good few minutes to start the game it then forces you to backtrack to the very beginning in order to hit a switch; it's unnecessary and puts a temporary halt to the action and level progression. There's also a blind leap of faith at the end of the game, and unless you know to hold a certain direction on your descent you'll fall into an inescapable hole with no way out... a very cheap way to 'encourage' replayability! Although the developers did the best they could given the lack of available joystick buttons, the controls are a little clumsy and the need to press a button and then hold diagonally-Up to leap greater distances can lead to inaccuracy; it's certainly not game-breaking and you can adjust to a degree, but there will be times where you'll take unfair damage. The atmosphere does fall flat without music and only limited SFX, but the graphics and animation (especially when Phooey walks) are superb.

Hong Kong Phooey is filled with untapped potential and its unfortunate control issues rear their ugly head far too often throughout the adventure. The level design does have some bright spots though and if you're a patient gamer who can look past the rather wonky inputs you might get some enjoyment out of this one.

Random trivia: The 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST versions allow you to choose between music or SFX.

Yogi's Great Escape (Amiga review)

Developer: PAL Developments
Publisher: Hi-Tec Software
Released: 1990

Yogi's Great Escape is a side-scrolling platform game where your mission is to save Jellystone Park from its impending closure.

It consists of six levels which take place in Jellystone Park, The Forest, Wild West, Mumbo Jumbo Marsh, The Funfair and New York City. Most of these are your standard platforming fare where you need to make tricky jumps and avoid a wide range of enemies. However, the themed stages do help to keep things interesting. There are many objects scattered around and although they aren't necessary to complete the level collecting all of them will add a Special Bonus to your point total. The final level sees you piloting a hot air balloon and it's probably the best stage in the game - in fact, it reminds me of Up, Up and Away (1983, Atari 8-bit) as you need to carefully manoeuvre your vehicle while dodging incoming birds and instant death traps. The main problem with this port of Yogi's Great Escape is that it doesn't include anything that wasn't already seen on the various 8-bit computer versions. It would have been nice to have slightly longer levels or more stages to make this a true 16-bit game; instead it only has six very short stages and the whole game can be beaten in around ten minutes if you're good at platformers. Even the A.I. hasn't been reworked and enemies still frequently walk off the edge of a platform to their death! The graphics feature some nice parallax scrolling and the backgrounds do a good job of conveying the different themed levels. There's only one music track that's repeated in each level and although it's decent it doesn't fit in this style of game at all!

Yogi's Great Escape is a fun platform game but it's simply too short and doesn't take advantage of what the Amiga can do. It's certainly a lot smoother than it's 8-bit counterparts but it failed to include any extra content that it desperately needed to help set it apart.

Random trivia: This port was coded by Gary Antcliffe who also programmed the Amiga versions of Bomb Fusion (1989) and Blazing Thunder (1991).

Turbo the Tortoise (Amstrad CPC review)

Developer: Visual Impact
Publisher: Hi-Tec Software
Released: 1992

Turbo the Tortoise is a side-scrolling platform game that was released towards the end of the Amstrad CPC's life.

The game consists of six zones that take you through periods such as the Ice Age, Medieval Times and The Future. You work your way from left-to-right while jumping on enemies, leaping across platforms and avoiding the many obstacles in each level. The gameplay reminds me a lot of Yogi's Great Escape (1990, home computers) which was also published by Hi-Tec Software. Along the way you'll find items such as health, temporary invincibility and ammo. If you have the latter you can fire your weapon to take out bad guys from a distance. I'd recommend saving the majority of your ammo until the end of the level though as it makes the boss encounters much easier. Each boss has a pattern and once you know it they're complete pushovers. There's lots of interesting gameplay mechanics throughout the zones including Ice Age where you pick up blocks and throw them into the water to get across safely. Later levels allow you to pick up a bubble and a jetpack - however, these only last for a few seconds and the level design doesn't really allow them to be used to their full potential. The enemies are fairly generic but there's a wide range of sprites and some that are only available in certain zones. The controls are responsive and it's easy to make quick second reactions when enemies suddenly enter the screen. The scrolling is very smooth for a CPC game which is quite a rarity! The graphics are superb with nice texture details, a wide range of colours on display and some large boss sprites. Unfortunately there's no music (probably due to space restrictions) which can leave the action lacking a bit of atmosphere.

Turbo the Tortoise is an excellent platform game that deserved more attention from the gaming public. It's no rival to Super Mario Bros. (as Amstrad tried to convince us!) but it's a well crafted title that has just enough variety to put it towards the top of the genre on the CPC.

Random trivia: I'm not sure if it's intentional or not but the Prehistoric Zone boss looks like Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Future Zone boss is a spitting image of Kid Chameleon from the Sega Mega Drive game!