Dandy

Copyright : Electric Dreams | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Dandy is a monster of a Gauntlet clone and was released by Electric Dreams on the ZX Spectrum along with our beloved CPC.

Wander around the dungeons and complete the tasks in a set order to finaly do battle with good vs evil. It all sounds very familiar doesn?t it? look no further than Gauntlet by Atari Games and you will see the engine this game is based on!

Graphics

Now this game was a complete shock to us when it had loaded on the CPC. Not because it was particularly any good in terms of appearance but because it actually looked almost ten times worse than the ZX Spectrum counterpart, something we are certainly not used to seeing.

Colours are much more limited and not very varied throughout the 100+ levels of the game and it?s very hard to spot what is going on at any one point.

Sound

The soundtrack is not something that is going to make you jump out of your seat either, there is of course no introduction or in game music to listen to and the sound effects are limited to a few tiny explosions and bleeps. Considering the graphics are a step down from the ZX Spectrum version it could have been handled a lot better.

Gameplay

Dandy is almost an exact replica of the classic Gauntlet series by Atari Games because the engine is pretty much the same. The idea is as you might have guessed very similar also in that you must wander around the dungeons, slaying the enemy and completing the tasks in a set order while keeping a watchful eye on your energy bars.

There are plenty of powerups you will find a long the way, ranging from smart bombs that will clear the entire screen of enemies and clever little traps that will take care of the occasional hairy legged bad guy.

There are 192 different screens in this game so it?s gonna take time to complete but if you love the Gauntlet series then this is one you should certainly check out.