Commodore User


Tusker
By System 3
Commodore 64

 
Published in Commodore User #73

Tusker

Here comes System 3's Tusker - game which is all about... elephants. More specifically, it's about getting yourself to the Elephants' Graveyard, where lies a whole stash of ivory worth mucho moolah.

What do you look like? Well, a bit rough actually, you're stubbly and hunched. Anyway, for the C64, Tusker comes in three-part multiload form and kicks off in the desert where you half expect someone to pop up with a Turkish Delight - but they don't. Instead, you get crazed Bedouins with swords and zombie-like tribesmen, anxious to chop you up for lunch. Luckily, you're a mean mutha but each time you're hit, you lose valuable points and a lot of blood. Because you're a colonial whitey, you also get to shoot lots of foreign-looking sprites.

As things hot up, the weapons pile up. You're an ace explorer, so it comes as no surprise to learn that you can carry a whole lorryload of weapons on yer tod. You've got the whole works - machete, pistol, sling, dagger - and can select one by highlighting a weapons box at the top of the screen. En route to the Elephants' Graveyard you'll need to pick up hip flasks and various magic charms to see you through to stages two and three.

Tusker

Further into the game, there are a whole stack of horrors to confront you like the evil monsters of the marsh who suddenly leap out, do their damndest to send you into the next world and just as quickly disappear; pogoing skulls and, a nice touch this, exotic idols which bulb tears which could seriously damage your health. After this, it's mainly lots of prehistoric monsters on the rampage or giant meat-eating plants.

I'd fit the graphics for Tusker way into the adequate category. The sprites are pretty but pretty average-shaped, maybe even a little on the small size, and it's because of the size that they're so blocky. The backdrops are pretty enough, but they do get a bit repetitive.

A suitably jungley soundtrack plays throughout, with lots of bongo drums and Tarzan soundtrack noises, you know the sort of thing you get playing all the way through "Carry On In The Jungle Oh No Matron". Spot FX here and there are added.

An enjoyable enough romp, but nothing really outstanding. Worth buying, but not worth queueing for.

Tony Dillon