C64 Review of Auf Wiedersehen Monty from Issue 26
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Having been sent to prison for carrying out a daring raid on a South Yorkshire mining pit in Wanted Monty Mole and then escaping to the saftey of Europe in Monty On The Run the intrepid Monty Mole is back - travelling through Europe in search of enough money to purchase Montos, a secluded Greek island.
Like its immediate predecessor, Auf Wiedersehen Monty is a flick-screen platform game in which the player has to guide the mole around a system of screens filled with platforms and ropes. Monty is an athletic little creature and can climb, run and jump - a useful series of actions considering his environment.
Money is acquired in two ways - either by collecting Eurocheques which are scattered throughout the map, or by picking up items and dropping them off in the correct places. For example, the Mona Lisa has to be stolen, a Swiss bank account opened and a car entered into a Grand Prix.
Sometimes completing a task involves flying from one part of the map to another, which involves finding an air ticket and an airport. When Monty's standing at the airport and the Commodore key is pressed, a single cloud-filled screen is shown. Monty appears in a biplane and proceeds to follow another similar plane piloted by an Intermole agent. Touching the back of the enemy plane with the propeller destroys it, earning Monty bonus points. Another plane then appears giving the player another chance to earn points, until the destination is reached.
Throughout his cash-raising quest, Monty is beset by the foul inhabitants of Europe. These horrors aren't like the tourists we've all come to love and adore. This type of European is mean, twisted and mutated, and either floats, patrols or leaps around the screen on a preset course, removing one of Monty's seven lives on contact.
As well as dastardly hostiles, there are deadly plungers which pound up and down randomly, electric platforms which frazzle and strangely coloured waters in which Monty drowns. Just to heap a little more misfortune on Monty's narrow shoulders, some harmless looking objects are dangerous when collected. Picking up wine bottles makes the velvety one drunk and he stumbles around randomly under his own steam until he 'sobers up'. Bad news indeed, because during this period he's more than likely to stumble into something deadly and die. Aaah ...
This review was typed in/OCRed by Jianso
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ZzapBack
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In the spirit of ZzapBack, you can have your say about how the game reviewed above, stands up in the cold light of today. Has it aged
badly or is it still worth a few plays? Read other peoples thoughts and post your own.
The current ZzapBack rating is : 57%
Check out the most recent ZzapBack comments.
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Rate It!
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Dave - 25 Jan 2010
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Oh god how I wish I'd have learned 6502 and then wrote that song amongst others!! Sure, this game got played for the music but which games didn't that had Hubbard or Galway music? Just glad I lived in the UK and not the US with a C64....... and now back to SOASC.....
Rating : 50%
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John Robson - 5 Nov 2009
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Liked this game, good music and there was plenty to be going at.
Sure it's a platform game, but a good one.
Rating : 92%
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Chris Bailey - 23 Oct 2009
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A seminal classic, clearly someone wasnt reading the instructions in the box to not understand the puzzles that were within the game and name any other platformer that was around then that didnt have screens of sudden death, pitfalls that you dropped into time and time again until the game was over.. monty didnt have that it was a design triumph . Everything made sense every jump was possible, it rewarded you for being daring and trying what seemed impossible, it had sudden breakdance moments.. it took the piss out of the french (that should have given it a +10 to the review right there) and above all it was the single best monty mole game.. it seems to me that no one has really bothered to put that much time and effort into actually playing it.
Rating : 90%
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Rick - 10 Jul 2004
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Agreed, this game is pants. But those comments about the music. Zzap should have actually LISTENED to it! A Hubbard / Daglish collaboration which resulted in a truly inspired, groundbreaking piece of rock synth worthy of an award or four. Listen to it again! Low score is for the game BTW.
Rating : 23%
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CraigGrannell - 4 Dec 2003
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The original Monty on the Run had a lot going for it: great graphics, an amazing soundtrack, infuriating "just one more go" gameplay, and some interesting intermissions utilising a Sinclair C5 and a jet-pack. So what went wrong here? The graphics, if anything, are worse than the prequel's and the soundtrack, although listenable, is something of a regression. Worse, though, is the gameplay, with its obscure puzzles and "gnaw your own arm off" tedious flying sequence. Very, very disappointing, and time has not been kind to this game...
Rating : 31%
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Julian Rignall
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What's most disappointing is that after a year and a half the only new thing Monty Mole can offer is a little bit of break-dancing. Auf Wiedersehen Monty isn't much of an improvement over Monty On The Run. It's very slick and polished, but when you get through the gloss you find that the gameplay is virtually identical, the graphics are very similar and the tune, if anything, is a regression. When Monty On The Run came out in 1985 it stunned us with its amazing music and pretty graphics, this time around a very similar product simply doesn't appeal. Gone is the urge to solve those incredibly obscure and devious puzzles, gone is the excitement and with it, hopefully, is that damn mole.
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Gary Penn
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I'm all for innovation, but there's nothing remotely innovative to be found here. When it boils down to it, Manic Miner offers as much, in not more, playability and innovation. There are more screens and platforms - but the weak gameplay offers nothing new or exciting. The bonus/intermission screen is totally pointless, and represents no challenge whatsoever. An archaic and exausted formula with a modern price tag - Auf Wiedersehen Monty... and good riddance.
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Steve Jarratt
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I hadn't played any of the previous Monty games (yes, I'm the one), so Auf Wiedersehen Monty was relatively fresh to me. Even so, I can't admit to be being overly impressed with it. The solutions to the 'puzzles' are really obscure and death arrives all too regularly, making it annoying after a while. I can appreciate the lure it must have for some people, but there seems to be little difference between this version and the last, so why bother? Try Gods And Heroes instead - it offers a lot more for considerably less.
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Ratings
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Presentation 73%
Generally unexciting with no options to speak of and an unimpressive title screen.
Graphics 68%
Detailed, monochrome characters and colourful backdrops.
Sound 79%
A predictable but listenable tune and simple spot effects and jingles.
Hookability 61%
Initialy mildly interesting but frustrating with it.
Lastability 47%
Even platform fanatics may find the action too repetitive and unrewarding.
Value 33%
Far too much for such an ageing concept.
Overall 46%
Nothing new on offer - even the most ardent of Monty fans is likely to be disappointed.
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