Commodore User


Henry's House... And Friends

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Laurie Sampson
Publisher: English
Machine: Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Commodore User #26

Henry's House And Friends

Three arcade games and one adventure lumped together for the price of one normal tape.

Henry's House is indeed Buck House, decorated with plush graphics and plenty of detail and so much colour it virtually drips off the screen. There are eight rooms of pure platform-hopping tribulations, with a complement of tokens to gather in before the next screen is accessed. Imaginative hazards block any easy passage but you won't mind as they add to the visual experience.

Not relying on pictorial content for its appeal, Jet Boot Jack is a 'level' game spread over ten screens in which the player finely tunes the degree of difficulty. The idea is to skate around, mopping up musical notes, taking fuel pods for your jet boots, avoiding fracturing your skull on stalactites and skirting the three forms of monster. The floors slip and slide about, adding to your problems. Could become habit forming.

Stranded is a graphic adventure that lands you with the unenviable task of escaping from a planet completely foreign to you. Using your wits, true grit and the computer keyboard, your ultimate aim is to return to Earth. As a special hint, English Software urges the player to make maps (ta very much!). Come in, John Ransley.

Back to safer ground with Neptune's Daughters, which is certainly dated. Probably the only place for it is in a collection like this where it creates a bit of a diversion. Virtually the only enjoyment is seeing just how slick you can become. You skim through three preliminary caverns, blasting a way through jellyfish and warding off octopuses, which multiply with each level. Cavern four has the diver eliminating a quota of amoeba prior to rescuing a damsel from the slimy clasp of a sea serpent.

Again no complaints over value.

Laurie Sampson

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