Alessandro Grussu


Hell Yeah

Author: Alessandro Grussu
Publisher: Presh
Machine: Spectrum 48K/128K/+2

 
Published in Al's Spectrum Annual 2021

Hell Yeah

A run-and-gun game with large and colourful sprites, Hell Yeah is the debut work of an author who stated he learned Z80 Assembly only recently. Hard to believe, as Hell Yeah seems like everything but the effort of an "absolute beginner". Large and colourful sprites move quickly through four levels filled with enemies of many kinds. There is no shortage of upgrades and other types of weapons, in addition to the default fire, not very powerful but with infinite ammunition. Along the way you will have to destroy some bosses and mini-bosses in order to proceed; you must also avoid just going forward and shooting, because the enemy hordes arrive tight and fast, and if you are not careful where you put your feet, jumping in order to avoid sharp spikes, pools of lava or incendiary bullets, you will not go far.

The baddies, however, are not very lethal per se; it is their continuous flow that makes the game challenging, especially at the highest difficulty level (there are three). In some places there are hidden platforms that only appear when you jump on them: memorizing their location is vital. Fortunately, if all of your lives are lost, it is possible to resume the game by starting over from the beginning of the last level reached, while your score will be reset.

Technically speaking, the style of sprites and backgrounds is rather simplified, but the colours and action speed compensate for that. As for sound, instead, there is not much. The game loads the levels one by one from tape, even on the 128K; it would have been better, in this case, to avoid multi-load. Anyway, level data takes a short time to load.

The greatest limitation of the game, however, are its straightforwardness and brevity: once you memorise the path, and the enemies' and bosses' behaviour, you will be able, with some patience, to run through all four levels. Taking this into account, Hell Yeah is a convincing debut like few others; let's see what will come next from its author.

Alessandro Grussu

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