RVG Forum

Whenever people try to combine education and gaming it usually goes horribly wrong, so we were pleasantly surprised to discover this game for the ColecoVision. Even more interestingly it originates from the arcades, a Konami title no less, which is an even rarer place than a console to find a game of this type. Monkey Academy is based all around maths and you start the game by choosing just what type of sums you want; adding, subtracting or dividing. Then you get to decide the level of difficulty, which determines how many enemies will be trying to stop you “do the math”. Once into the game it looks very much like a typical arcade platformer. A sum is then revealed that must be solved to complete the level. Sitting above the sum on the very top platform is your friend, eagerly awaiting your moment of genius. Enemy crabs start making their way down the platforms making it quite reminiscent of the original Mario Bros. game. Hanging from the various platforms are hooks that your monkey can grab hold of. When pulled, these reveal a banner with a number on it and once you find the number that solves the sum you press the button to grab it and take it up to your buddy. Also dotted around the screen are fruit, and this can be chucked at the enemy to kill them. Graphically the game is decent enough with nice cute sprites and the sound is of a good standard too. Overall Monkey Academy is a great edutainment title with the emphasis very much on the fun.

Xonox’s Motocross Racer is a really interesting but ultimately flawed racing game for the ColecoVision. You have to ride your motorbike through three distinct stages in the shortest time possible without crashing it too many times or taking too long. As you race the clock goes up and penalty time is added for a crash. The first stage sees you racing through the desert where you have to avoid rocks, cacti and some freakishly large scorpions. As this level goes on you get to a canyon where the screen becomes tighter. The second stage has you trying to drive your bike up a hill, and this is where it starts to go wrong. This level is viewed from an isometric perspective and it just has you going up and left, then up and right, then up and left and so on. There is nothing to avoid other than the sides of the track, you can’t build up any speed at all and it goes on forever! This stage is also not helped by the abysmal scrolling that is not only amazingly jerky but also fails to even keep up with the action at times with your bike almost going off the screen! On the last level you are racing along the beach avoiding freakishly large remote control cars and what look like some miniature beach huts. The scale of everything throughout the game is completely off, this is a common theme. Graphically the game is pretty good and the sound is also of a decent standard. But for everything is does right Motocross Racer does something wrong and just leaves you feeling very frustrated by what it could have been.

Mountain King is a good concept that is sadly ultimately a bit flawed. It was clearly released in response to Activision’s Pitfall II right at the start of the North American video game crash. Like Pitfall II it was billed as some sort of new super game with advanced features and characteristics, but is no where near as impressive as the Activision game. The idea is to explore the lost caves inside a mountain, recover the crown and return to the surface. But to be able to enter the tomb where the crown is kept you must first reach 1000 points. You do this by collecting the diamonds that sparkle in the rock face and the hidden treasure chests. These chests can only be found by using your handy torch to light up the cave ahead of you. You are not the only one down there though. Giant spiders roam the caves too and if you get caught in their webs too long you will get eaten up! This all sounds very good but this is just the brief version and once you start going into things like the flame spirit and the musical clues it all gets a little confusing and makes the game far less straight forward. Mountain King is also let down somewhat by its crude graphics, especially when they boasted about them in the advertising. I will say the main sprite is nicely animated though and the little tunes that play are nice, but the effects are annoying. Platformer fans will probably enjoy Mountain King but the rest of us will probably find it a bit too dull and frustrating.

Everyone knows what a great game the original Mr. Do! is, a classic digger that also received a very fine conversion to the ColecoVision, but people rarely talk about this equally fantastic sequel. This time Mr. Do doesn’t have to worry about getting his clown outfit dirty as he is safe and dry in the Unicorn’s castle. Well we say safe, the unicorns themselves are not particularly happy about him being there it seems! So Mr. Do must grab all the cherries, knock out the unicorns and escape from the castle intact. Taking the form of a traditional one-screen platformer, you use the ladders to move around the castle and your trusty hammer to defeat the baddies. But you can’t just hit them, it’s not that easy, you must smash the sections of each platform so they fall onto a unicorn below. The valuable cherries are also hidden inside the blocks that make up these platforms so you could say that you are in for a smashing time! You complete each level when you have either collected all the cherries or defeated the unicorns. There are also little tricks to be learned like moving the ladders and hitting the detonators to destroy whole platforms. But don’t take too long on each level as the unicorns will go crazy and try to fill you full of holes! Mr. Do’s castle is a more than worthy sequel with both attractive graphics and great sound that, in my opinion, is the best platform action to be had on the ColecoVision.

Imagic’s Nova Blast really took us by surprise, at first it seems to be nothing more than just a rip-off of the classic Williams arcade game Defender. In fact it’s much more than that and actually combines elements of Atari’s Missile Command, along with a few features of it’s own, to create a winning formula. Like Defender, the game is played out like a horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up with your ship being able to fly in both directions. You are also equipped with a laser weapon as well as bombs, but unlike Eugene Jarvis’ game these bombs are dropped from the bottom of your craft, more akin to Scramble. Another feature they borrowed from Defender is the on screen scanner. The elements from Atari’s Missile Command are far subtler, in fact they probably owe more to Imagic’s own clone of Dave Theurer’s classic - Atlantis. In the ocean below are the four cities that were mentioned in the plot, each one covered in a bubble. You must protect these cities from the invading aliens at all costs. If all the cities get destroyed then it’s game over and you failed your mission. Your ship has an energy bar that depletes every time you are hit, once this is gone then it’s also the end of the game. But, in one of the more unique features of Nova Blast, there are hydro power stations in the water that can be used to recharge. Nova Blast looks absolutely gorgeous - it’s definitely one of the best looking games on the ColecoVision. Imagic also did a good job with the sound effects and, along with all the other nice little it all adds up to make an absorbing and challenging shooter that you will be playing for a long time to come.