Previous Next

Sharpen your wits, Scott's back in town! After more than a year with nothing new from Scott Adams, Marvel greats The Thing and Human Torch have arrived to follow in the footsteps of Hulk and Spiderman.

Pitching you in at the deep end (literally) Thing is up to his neck in liquid tar, and sinking rapidly. Twenty false moves, and he's sucked under. "Blub! Thing dies." Torch can only stand by and watch, powerless, it seems to help.

Yet saving Thing is not the main objective of the game. The evil Dr. Doom has imprisoned Alicia Masters in his castle, and she must be rescued.

The castle entrance is efficiently guarded by Blob, a nifty character with the habit of dodging anything thrown at him and returning to his post in a flash to prevent unauthorised entry. Another deterrent provided by the resourceful Doctor, is a powerful death ray, giving cover to the castle's airspace.

FF is no ordinary mindbender though, for in this adventure you can take the role of either Thing, or Torch, and swap about at will. Although not the first adventure to be published in the UK with this feature (but written first) it requires far more interaction between the characters than is the case in Magician's Ball, and Lord Of The Rings.

Neither character can achieve the rescue of Thing alone. Each must work in harmony with the other, with carefully timed moves, to succeed. Equally, freeing Alicia is very much a team effort. And to hope to complete the game, you must understand and master the extraordinary powers of these two Marvel Comics superheroes.

Two versions are available for the C64 - a 'Sagaplus' disk (SAGA stands for Scott Adams Graphic Adventure) produced in the USA, and a cassette, converted completely in the UK. The two differ, not in plot, but in graphics and commands.

The disk graphic are read in as required, slowing the play down somewhat. Mainly shades of brown and blue, they tend to lack colour, somewhat. However, there is some very effective animation, including one really spectacular sequence that explains what is happening far more effectively than words! Once achieved (and it will take a lot of hard thinking to get there) it will likely bring a smile of smug satisfaction to your face!

The cassette graphics are all held in memory. Their instantaneous display, and fuller colour range, easily makes up for the lack of animation.

Scott's new multi-word interpreter not only understands an adverb, in many cases it requires one, for a command to work in the way you intended. The UK cassette uses a new parser written by Roger Taylor. There are differences, but it would take a lot of playing both versions to find them.

Fantastic Four is possibly a game you will look back on and think: "That wasn't very big!" Scott's games never are - they are concentrated puzzles. But believe me, while you are battling your way through (and probably overlooking the obvious) you will think it is enormous! Certainly it is every bit as challenging as Claymorgue Castle.

Roll up! Roll up! The Ringmaster is about to announce the first act, down at the circus tent...