Personal Computer News


Zany Kong Junior

Author: Simon Williams
Publisher: Superior
Machine: Acorn Electron

 
Published in Personal Computer News #094

ZANY KONG JUNIOR

I suppose one of the major confessions of my life is never having successfully completed the third screen of Killer Gorilla. This was partly my own ineptitude and partly the fault of the designer of the game who, in my humble opinion, made it far too hard after comparatively simple first and second screens.

Although a different game, and from a different supplier, Zany Kong Junior falls into a similar trap.

The game loads with no trouble and presents the first screen which consists of a number of ledges and mushrooms, interconnected with vines. The baby gorilla - Junior of the title - has to be guided around this assault course to reach a key at the top of the screen. This is only the first of many keys, as the evil Maurice, who has imprisoned Junior's mum, continually pushes her to a new position at the top of the next screen.

Zany Kong Junior

Preventing you from guiding your young ape around the screen are a number of snappers - demented sets of false teeth which patrol the vines and platforms. Any contact with these, a more than minimal fall, or overstepping your time limit leads to the loss of one of three lives.

The whole game gets a bit hairy, with a lot of unpredictable snappers on the screen at once. However well you time your swings and leaps, you're all too likely to be snapped from behind when you least expect it. There is a touchingly accurate frightened gorilla sprite which appears when this happens.

If you do complete the first screen, the second has aardvark birds, otherwise known as parrots, flying round. There are also moving ledges and trampolines to add variety.

The cassette insert warns of electric spikes, and these presumably appear at higher levels. There are very few occasions when I've reached screen two with more than one life remaining, however, so I'll have to take Superior's word for it. Good fun, well animated, but a trifle too tough.

Simon Williams

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