Dynamoid

Published on Game On 07/90

Up until now, I've deliberately skipped over any Pong clones that I came across on CP Verlag's diskmags. Mainly because all of them were either tediously boring and/or made with minimal effort. Dynamoid is different. It's still Pong, but it does its best to hide the simple gameplay behind an outstanding presentation.

Reaction

Published on Magic Disk 64 04/90

If we want to reduce C64 games to their basic essentials, a lot of them come down to a test of reflexes. Reaction is different. It does the reduction for us in advance and simply presents itself as a pure test of dexterity:

You can't accuse the game of false advertising; what it's about can be found right in its name. Admittedly, the iconography surrounding the title logo may be a bit bewildering. Without wanting to spoil too much, I can already confirm that Reaction does indeed contain stars, moons, balls, arrows, blue windy paths, and a disembodied hand doing thumb signals. Unfortunately, that probably makes the game appear more exciting than it ends up being.

MegaParatrooper!

Published on Game On 02/90

Today on Adventures in 16 Colors I take a look at MegaParatrooper!, a multi-stage game that switches genres so frequently that you spend more time waiting for additional parts to load than playing the actual game. I'm not exaggerating.

That is certainly one of the largest title logos I've come across in a while. It also belongs to one of the worst games I've had the pleasure to review so far. We've officially reached a low point in software that got published on Game On.

Decton

Published on Magic Disk 64 01/90

Decton is a gravity-based action game similar to Muse Software's Space Taxi from 1984. Instead of passengers, you have to fetch nondescript cargo from several platforms placed across the level and transport it to the starting point. Expect to swear a lot when playing this one.

That is one colorful title logo, I have to say. So colorful in fact, it uses all of the C64's available colors, except for one. Sorry, Violet, this party's just not for you.

No Mercy (Preview)

Published on Magic Disk 64 12/89

No Mercy is an Operation Wolf clone whose most defining trait is how much of an Operation Wolf clone it is. To its credit, it's a very competent clone, in some points even better than Operation Wolf's C64 port. I never saw the full version of the game (released on Golden Disk 64 07/90) at any kiosks, so I only ever got to play the preview version which consisted of one level.

Operation Wolf was an arcade game released by Taito in 1987. It's a side-scrolling shooting gallery that uses a mounted gun as an optical controller. You point and shoot at stuff on the screen and throw the occasional grenade. Getting shot or shooting friendly targets, such as civilians or nurses, increases your injury meter. If the meter is full, you're dead. Your ammunition is limited, but you can restock it (in classic video game logic) by shooting ammo containers and animals.

The game was ported to several consoles and home computer platforms by Ocean. The C64 conversion was quite decent and one of the few games that supported the use of a mouse.

Anyway, on to No Mercy (Preview). The game doesn't bother to hide its inspiration at all. Just compare Operation Wolf's cover art to No Mercy's intro screen:

Totally not Dolph Lundgren from Red Scorpion

Spot the non-difference!