Aaargh!

Copyright : Melbourne House | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Since Rampage by Activision, a huge number of clones had been released for the old 8-bit platform. The idea is pretty much the same but with a new story, basicaly you smash buildings and kill absolutely everything on screen, then move on to the next level and do pretty much the same thing.

Graphics

The graphics are certainly a lot more detailed than those seen in Rampage and there?s a lot more on each screen compared to the standard three buildings. The colours are very bright and varied between each level, the developers have certainly made extremely good use of the CPC colour system and compared to the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum versions its no surprise that the Amstrad release kicks it right in the danglers!

There?s no signs of sprite problems or collision detection errors (you wont vanish behind a similar colour or suddenly fall down dead for walking past a wall) but there is a downside. Its not the fastest game you?ll ever play, there is so much happening on any screen at one time that the frame rate really dips into a depressingly low number. If you?re playing on an emulator that allows you to adjust the frame rate then this is now less of a problem, but back in the days..it might not have gone down too well.

Sound

Sound is VERY limited. We dont get any music for a start, a common trend in CPC releases and the reason is usualy something to do with memory. Often the fact is, the developers couldn?t find time to make or convert any. In game sound effects are limited to just the occasional blip and bang, not very varied at all really and nothing that would make you want to turn up your speakers.

Gameplay

Rampage has taken a massive beating over the years, from its original release right up to the present day people have said it was dull, flat and boring. Sadly Aaargh! doesn?t do anything to make those problems go away, nothing new is offered other than some fancy graphics and in some cases its even made worse.

The slow-down in itself is enough to put many gamers off and it seriously lowers the chances of anyone playing past a few screens of the game before reaching for the reset keys. Aaargh! is a two player game, which is probably a good thing due to the frame rate issues we have with just one human controlled character on the screen, but because there?s so little to smash on each level and coupled with the difficulty in moving about the screen without getting shot by the "enemy" its not an easy game to love.

At the end of the day, if you dont like Rampage or Ramparts then I would avoid this title. If you?re an avid fan of either of those two then you should at least see for yourself.