Black Magic

Copyright : DataSoft | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Another tale of a magicians apprentice that has gotten himself in more than a little bit of trouble, you are stuck in a strange wood and in order to survive you must keep a healthy supply of food with you at all times while overpowering the nasty beings that inherit and control the woods.
Or at least something similar, on with the review....

Graphics

Black Magic is one hell of a strange game and it?s been portrayed quite well by the creators (DataSoft). You are a rather odd looking green character that simply walks along the woods, climbing ladders and shooting arrows at the killer plants and birds that little the woods. It all appears to be a little basic looking, the main character is less than rounded and looks more than a little blocky, the level designs are pretty good with a nice use of colour scattered about the place and the enemies are very varied.
There are a few tiny glitches though, our hero will sometimes become lost in the backgrounds and that particular problem makes it hard to see what you?re doing, another problem is in the sideways scrolling, the screen has a low refresh rate and causes occasional blinking.

Sound

Sound is a major let down on this one as it?s far less active than we hoped it would be. There is no music at the start of the game or during play and the in-game effects will only pop-up every now and again. Sadly this is another one of those CPC titles that makes far less use of the hardware than us owners would have liked, we?ve said it before so we?ll say it again - if less known developers can get it right then there is no excuse for the big players.

Gameplay

As we mentioned earlier the game is simple, fight your way across the level and keep topping your food supply up while kicking the daylights out of those strange looking birds that don?t stop grinning and the killer plants that want you for lunch.
Despite the occasional graphical glitch and the almost distinct lack of sound the game still remains fairly playable and is far better than many others that follow the same ideas, controls work without any flaws though the slow-down can be distracting. Not a bad little platformer at all.