Tales of the Arabian Nights

Copyright : Interceptor Software | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

For some strange reason our hero has gotten himself in a little bit of a mess, resulting in a strange curse. Unless he manages to find all the bags (labelled A, R, A , B, I, A, N) he is in big trouble, this isn?t his only problem though as each area is scattered with strange creatures that will kill you without thinking twice.

A strange little platformer from Interceptor Software.

Graphics

Like many other Amstrad titles this was also released on the Commodore 64 (almost a swear word here we know) but we have never seen any other version but the CPC release, therefore we aren?t going to compare it to other versions. The graphics in the CPC release leave a lot to be desired as the colour scheme looks like it was dragged from an old ZX Spectrum game and the animation is well and truly awful. From what we gather via our message boards it looks as if the game is trying to put too much information on screen at once resulting in slow gameplay and not so impressive graphics.

Sound

Sound is also a little off putting, the music is nothing short of weird and almost sounds like white noise when coming through a real CPC 464 speaker. There are however some nice in-game noises every now and again and the inclusion of the "death march" music when you loose a life (as you?ll read below, this happens all too often).

Gameplay

Gameplay is affected quite badly by very poor controls, unresponsive in-game characters and the ever so nasty music that litters each level. The game isn?t made easier by the stupid ways in which our hero can die, for example if you reach the top of a mast or the highest point in the game and try and get back down (the only way being to jump) you?re going to die when you hit the floor and be forced to start the puzzle all over again. You are however given 5 lives to play the game with but considering the amount of times you are going to loose one it?s hardly enough to get past the first level.

The idea of the game is simple enough though - all you have to do is avoid the nasties and collect the lettered bags in the correct order (you can?t get them wrong as our character will refuse to pick it up). Arabian Nights is a pretty simple puzzler but with so many problems it hardly warrants the couple of Kbs download or the 5 minutes worth of gameplay.