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In Summer of 2019, Juan J. Martinez announced himself to the MSX community releasing his first ever MSX game called Night Knight. It is a simple platform game with several interesting elements to show to MSX users.

Juan J. Martinez is a "one man team". He is an experienced I.T. specialist from Spain who has settled in Bristol, United Kingdom. With his spare time he enjoys making 8-bit games. In his own words, he states: "I love making games for classic systems".

He has released games on the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. With the release of Night Knight on the MSX, we can see a progressive evolution of his 8-bit gaming talents.

In this 2D platform game, you are the main character, known as Sir Bernard. He is an old knight cursed by a witch, because of that he has become an insomniac and can't sleep at night. The only way to break the witch's curse is to paint the floor tiles in all the rooms within his castle to yellow. There are around 80 different room designs for Sir Bernard to complete while avoiding the monsters that are out to stop him.

The player can move Sir Bernard in left and right directions with the cursor keys. Sir Bernard is able to jump onto platforms by pressing the Space Bar. The difficulty of each stage is defined by the room design and the type of monsters which are moving around there.

The first screen like many games is very simple then it becomes harder as you progress through the rooms. Most of the enemy monsters are based on classic horror film icons such as undead skeletons, vampires and ghosts. A countdown timer brings about a frantic quality to the game encouraging you to play this game very quickly, to reach the exit before the timer counts down.

This game element may remind you of some other famous games, such as Lemmings and Lode Runner, where the main character has to activate an exit through to the next screen, from completing a task while avoiding enemies. In some ways, I feel it's fairly close to another old arcade game, called, Nightmare in the Dark by ADK.

The goal of colouring the floor tiles after stepping on them, was also very important in a classic well known video game among 8-bit Spanish MSX users, called Humphrey by Zigurat. Another motivation to keep on playing Night Knight is that items can be uncovered to modify the remaining time left or provide a key which opens the exit door without completing your task of painting all the tiles yellow.

Everything in Night Knight moves so fast. It catches the same spirit of the first Nintendo Game & Watch hand held devices which were so addictive. The in game music is rather jolly and satisfying to listen to. Graphically it looks fairly limited but the tileset, background and character sprites are beautifully presented.

Each of the level designs have been efficiently tested and pose no significant problems with the gameplay. A password system to save or load a game improves the final gaming experience. After every 10th level, backgrounds and brick tile sets will change colour and design. I love that as it gives a 'new discovery' effect and it feels like being rewarded for your continued progression.

The sprites appear small and all the enemies are monochrome which may be off putting to some. You may tire from playing the same style of game over many levels, but this is overcome with the password system allowing the player to come back when they feel like playing again. Despite small sprites and all enemies in monochrome, in my opinion this is not such a bad thing, it seems to work rather well, providing the game with a unique quality. Remember it's only 32K. The positives outweigh the negatives.

Night Knight is one of those games which has a hell of a lot of playability. All the elements present in Night Knight make for a fun and exciting gaming experience for this rather "simple" game. I feel that developer Juan J. Martinez becomes better and better with each new game he releases; his creations are not completely different to one another, but they're not several versions of the same kind of game either, which is proof that Juan J. Martínez is a brilliant 8-bit game developer. Night Knight is a good platforming game that will keep you in front of your MSX screens challenging you to complete every room within the time limit to free Sir Bernard of the witches curse.

Night Knight is an addictive game that is available as a free digital download to play via emulation or you can purchase a physical edition cartridge at a cost of 35 Euros. If you choose the second option, you'll receive a lovely collectors edition which includes (among other things) a nice poster illustrated by Ralph Niese.