Previous Next

As Buzz noted last month, Shackled was not exactly a smash hit for Data East in the arcades. And, unless I'm very mistaken, it's not going to be huge in the home market either. Not unless, that is, the demand for very inferior sub-Gauntlet clones with unforgivably poor graphics and unbelievably dull gameplay is much greater than I think it is.

The scenario in Shackled is simple enough: you, and an optional mate, play two small blob-like fellows entrusted with the task of rescuing more of your blob-like friends from a maze-like dungeon complex full of blob-like guards. If you're in one-player mode, you're a brown blob, in two-player mode the second hero is a green blob.

The dungeons are full of cells. Despite what the instructions say, you don't appear to need a key to open all the doors, just some of 'em. The passageways and some of the cells are packed with baddies, but in a few reside your imprisoned mates.

You've got some kind of weapon to blow away the nasties, some of whom throw hatchets and such like at you, others going in for hand-to-hand combat.

You start out with your health counter at 1000 and counting down. Getting hit or, particularly, getting involved in close quarters fighting speeds up your rate of decay. You can add to the counter by picking up icons left behind by dead guards or scattered about the play area. Perhaps there are some very important differences between the different icons left behind and their effects on your health and welfare but they were so appallingly badly and indistinctly drawn that there's no real way of telling (the instructions, incidentally, don't even attempt to identify what kind of "items" these might be: the person responsible for writing them was obviously too bored to attempt even the most basic Dungeons & Dragons-style guff standard in this kind of game's accompanying bumpf). There are also keys scattered here and there to enable you to get through whichever doors need 'em.

Once you release an imprisoned mate, he tags along behind you, and you find your fire power is increased by his mysterious special power. Once you've collected a couple of these lads, you lead them to a door marked "out" to go to the next level.

That's basically it. There are occasional larger guards who are more difficult to destroy, and the mazes vary (slightly) from level to level, but these are just minor details really.

The really appalling thing about Shackled is that whoever programmed it quite clearly wasn't really bothered. Everything, from the jobsworth instructions, to the truly crummy graphics and sound, smacks of a cheap, rushed job. The characters being rescued and the rescuers themselves are often the same colour, leading to confusion as to which blob you are, a confusion not helped by the fact that in close combat situations you are often, inexplicably, unable to move away in any direction for several seconds. In the arcade game, dull though it was, at least your rescues followed you faithfully, winding around corners after you, but here a sharp turn will leave your newly freed companion trying hopelessly to walk through a wall as you leave him behind. I could go on for several more paragraphs, but I think you get the idea.

Perhaps most damningly of all, Shackled doesn't even provide any serious challenge. According to the instructions, there are 100 levels: on my first attempt I got through nine, and that's without even knowing what I was doing. At the end of each level a message comes up over the bold(s) you've just rescued: "Free from the shackles at last". And as I type this sentence, I know just how this little blob feels.