Review of Rick Dangerous

C64 Review of Rick Dangerous from Issue 52

It's 1945 and Rick Dangerous is the kind of hero who laughs in the face of death and promptly head butts him one for good measure. Such courage is abrupt [sic - ly] put to the test when his aircraft crashes near the temple of the headhunting Goolu tribe. Rather than running away as fast as possible Rick decides to loot some treasure while he's there. He's armed with a gun, six sticks of dynamite (for blowing away fallen stonework, and a prodding stick (makes a change from a whip).

If Rick survives the caverns he's straight off to Egypt to rescue the precious Jewel of Ankhel from some mad mullahs. In the third mission Mr. Danger ous is off to.... well, you'll have to find that out for yourself.

This review was typed in/OCRed by Iain

Scan of this review is available

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The current ZzapBack rating is : 70%

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Anonymous - 9 Jul 2015

This game played less frustrating if played with emulator that can save. Just don't save every second..ha,ha.. great classic

Rating : 85%

CraigGrannell - 18 May 2005

Rick Dangerous was one of the few games that ever made me smash a joystick to pieces in frustration. The combination of platform game and memory test was initially fairly compelling, and Hookability was perhaps under-rated in the original review. However, it soon becomes little more than a frustrating memory test, with the user having no chance whatsoever to avoid the various traps. Once I finished the game, I never wanted to return to it again, and Lastability should therefore drop by about 50 per cent or more. Overall, this game is just about bearable, but I never understood why it was considered something of a classic.

Rating : 37%

Iain - 18 May 2005

Sure it's hard, sure it's frustrating, sure it's annoying, but it's still a great game that has that 'just one more go' touch to it.

Every time you play it, you do get a bit further so it's not like banging your head against a brick wall or anything.It is somewhat annoying when you die that you might have to restart 2 or 3 screens back.

I think the graphics are great, the background are very well drawn and Rick's sprite is well defined. The enemy's sprites are somewhat blocky though.

Pres 85% Gfx 88% Sfx 60% Hk 82% Lst 90%

Rating : 88%

Stuart Wynne

Rick Dangerous is the sort of plat forms-and-ladders arcade/puzzle game which has been around for ages. Graphics, while good, are not spectacular and sound is disappointing. Ini tially playability doesn't seem that special, but once the traps start springing it picks up. Often the traps are impossible to notice beforehand, but with such comic presentation death is usu ally more funny than frustrating. Addictive and entertaining this deserves to do well.

Robin Hogg

The Indiana Jones influence is rubbing off on quite a few games recently, Rick Dangerous being one of them. The jolly antics of Rick braving a series of very attractively detailed caverns and tombs comes to life through what is simple but very enjoyable gameplay (shades of Giana Sisters and Bruce Lee in places). Each cave has its own, set pattern of play to get through with the best fun coming from the lethal, and often very deviously placed traps. The tunes before each level are good but why aren't the sound effects a little more gutsy?

Ratings

PRESENTATION 79%
Good intro screen, clean layout and a handy Abort key.

GRAPHICS 78%
Good cavern backgrounds but the sprites lack anything more than moderate detail.

SOUND 57%
Pleasing start-of-level ditties but generally quite spot effects otherwise.

HOOKABILITY 73%
A rather tough start but the problem solving element soon comes into its own and keeps you glued.

LASTABILITY 76%
85 rooms may not seem like a lot but you'll be hard pushed to see a quarter of them in your first sitting.

OVERALL 73%
A playable and fun platform-style game but not much more than that.

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