Satan logo

DINAMIC £19.99 * Joystick and Keyboard

Good shall always triumph over evil. History has proved that over and over again. The problem is, the forces of evil are an irrepressible bunch. As soon as you banish the evil forces back to the place from whence they came, they return to wreak havoc upon the world once again.

This time, though, evil reckons it's got it sussed. All the powerful wizards that have been its undoing before have been captured. The only reason they're not dead yet is because Satan has been kept busy devising really nasty ways to torture them to death. And once they're dead, the world is doomed - this time for eternity.

There is one tiny glimmer of hope. While a warrior could not possibly take on the evil satanic forces himself, if one were to become adept in the use of magic, then maybe, just maybe, he'd stand a tiny chance of defeating the dark overlord.

Unfortunately it's not a case of simple enrolling in the local college for a crash course in advanced wizardry. To learn the arcane arts he must first cross the land of lost magic, where he will find three magic papyrus rolls that will give him the required knowledge. Only then will our hero - and this means you - be capable of the awesome task of taking on Satan and the other creatures of hell.

The game is split into two halves. In the first you play the warrior, guiding him through the land of lost magic in his quest for the lost papyrus rolls.

You can run around to your heart's content on the platforms. To advance through the levels though, you'll need to jump and cling onto the pillars which seem to hang in mid air. Arcade fans will notice that this section bears more than a passing resemblance to the game Black Tiger.

The monsters come in several flavours. The plain vanilla type are the Trows, which are everywhere, and if you so much as blink you'll find them popping up all over the place. These can only harm you by contact, but they're still pretty tough, and need several shots to kill them.

You'll meet many other of Hell's minion on your travels. They have various methods of attack and you'll have to fight them all if you're to stand any chance at all of success. Killing creatures reaps rewards. Most often you'll get a coin which just gives you points. Some will reveal more valuable collectables, though: extra energy, more time and additional lives are amongst the goodies up for grabs after successful combat.

Eventually, after much running about, leaping around and getting hurt, you'll come across one of the Guardians of the scrolls. These are real mean monsters, and hopefully you'll have received a power-up or two before you face them.

The first you'll come across is Tam Lin, a dragon made of bone. You'll need to shoot him in the head several times and then blast his beating heart to pieces to obtain the first scroll.

In the unlikely event that you manage to complete the first part, you'll be given an access code to reach the second section of the game. It's here that you meet Satan, along with even worse adversaries with whom you will enter in mortal combat.

Luckily, though, you're now a wizard. Admittedly a pretty poorly-equipped wizard but it just so happens that there's a corner shop where you can shell out on more powerful magical items. Then it's a case of fighting the ultra-tough evil beings. If you manage to floor one of the big brutes, two more appear, and so on until you've killed the lot - or they've killed you. Hell, as they say, is war.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

For the most part the scrolling is smooth and constant. IT does seem to judder occasionally, just out of the corner of your eye, but this doesn't detract from the playability. The backgrounds are well drawn, with lots of fire-and-brimstone stuff. The monsters are excellently animated too.

LASTING INTEREST

Satan is almost two games in one. Firstly, there's the Black Tiger style platform and pillars game. Complete that and you'll find the second half different enough to keep you going. Saying that, both sections are tough enough in their own right and it's quite possible that you won't beat the first level. However, many will.

JUDGEMENT

Satan is unoriginal, but good fun nevertheless. The first part is a linear adventure, where you progress further and further each time you play. The second section could be described as a sort of martial arts with lightning bolts. It's this combination that makes Satan such a devilishly addictive game!



Dämonisches aus dem Land der Kastagnetten

Satan logo

Nach dem Dreiviertelflop "Astro Marine Corps" wagt die spanische Softwareschmiede Dinamic jetzt einen weiteren Anlauf - ob mit dem neuen Flight &l Run Spielchen allerdings der große Wuf geglückt ist, darf bezweifelt werden...

Eines der grundlegenden Probleme des Metzelgenres ist der meist eintönige Spielablauf: Stets hastet man mit einem auf Conan getrimmten Barbaren-Sprite durch endlose Labyrinthe, tötet alles, was die Frechheit besitzt sich zu bewegen, und sammelt ein paar Extras, die den Killerjob erleichtern.

Wie nicht anders zu erwarten, ist auch Satan kaum spektakulärer als die Konkurrenz. Na, immerhin ist das Game in zwei Abschnitte unterteilt, die sich sowohl spielerisch als auch optisch von einander unterscheiden.

Zunächst wandert man im gewohnten Barbaren-Look durch ein paar höhlenartige Level, knallt leidlich fantasievoll gestaltete Gegner ab und versucht, Extras wie bessere Schüsse, Energietränke oder Zusatzleben zu ergattern.

Die Zeit ist begrenzt, manchmal liegen aber Sanduhren herum, die in dieser Hinsicht weiterhelfen. Besonders wichtig ist, daß man auch Pergamentrollen findet, da die Dinger für den zweiten Abschnitt benötigt werden.

Hier wird's dann etwas abwechslungsreicher: Der Held verwandelt sich in einen Magier und muß mindestens einen der sieben gefangenen Kollegen retten, ehe sie von den diversen Hilfs- und Haupt-Teufeln um's Eck gebracht werden. Es gibt jetzt auch einen Shop, wo man so hilfreiche Kleinigkeiten wie Satan-Scanner (zum Auffinden der Biester), Teleporter-Karten oder eine Zauberaxt besorgen kann.

Insgesamt geht es nun also darum, die Teufelchen zu orten, und einen nach dem anderen in die Hölle zurückzuschicken.

Während der zweite Teil noch eine halbwegs eigenständige Idee vorweisen kann, ist der erste Spielabschnitt durch und durch ein Abklatsch von U.S. Gold's "Black Tiger". Leider auch, was die Schwächen betrifft: Das Scrolling strapaziert die Schmerzgrenze weit über Gebühr, die Soundeffekte sind einfallslos, und meist hinkt die Joystickabfrage dem Geschehen etwas hinterher.

Von der eintönigen Farbwahl einmal abgesehen, sind aber wenigstens die Hintergründe recht hübsch gelungen, was man von den Animationen (sowohl der Gegner als auch des Helden) nicht behaupten kann.

Auch Teil zwei ist weder von der Präsentation her, noch spielerisch berauschend - und daß man entgegen dem Anleitungstext von Anfang an als Magier starten darf, macht die Sache auch nicht gerade spannender!

Somit kann man Satan eigentlich niemand so recht empfehlen. Obwohl: Begeisterte Fans des Genres können ja mal ein Probespielchen wagen. Für Gelegenheits-Barbaren hält der Softwaregarten aber allemal süßere Früchte bereit als die unter Spaniens Sonne gereifte Teufelei. (Norbert Beckers)



Satan logo

Dinamic, C64 £9.95 cassette, £14.95 disk; Amiga £19.95

Your worst nightmare has come true. Yes, those satanic film planners have taken over the world, torturing everyone with their psychedelic colours. Until now no-one has been brave enough to tell them that grass really isn't pink, but at last a brave warrior steps forward.

Before he can take on the evil planners he must learn the secrets of magic and become a wizard. This is achieved in the first two independent game sections (as usual with Dinamic games, completing the first gives an access code for the second).

The long-haired barbarian hero ventures through multi-directionally scrolling levels filled with platforms to jump on and pillars to climb. As well as a time limit to battle against, there are plenty of film planning minions on hand to reduce his energy, including axe-wielding lumberjacks, flying gargoyles and reproducing dwarfs. When shot, some of these leave behind an object - these include coins and gems for points, elixers for extra energy, and more powerful weapons such as the R-Type-style beam.

At the end of each level, there is a large super-baddie which, when defeated, drops a scroll of magic. Collect all these and the warrior becomes a wizard, prepared to enter the Palace Of The Clouds where several other wizards have been imprisoned. At last, Satan (also known as Beezlebub or Uffindell) makes a personal appearance. Even when 'destroyed' he turns into two Cyphers - deadly flying demons. When shot, each of these mutates into two Damiens - rapid-firing, flying demons.

Every time a creature is destroyed it drops a coin which can be spent at Brownie the Wizard's (very handily located) shop to buy weapons, shields, two types of map, and a teleport pad which can be dropped at a useful place. To rescue a wizard the creature escorting him to his execution must be killed. At least one wizard has to be rescued (and all the evil forces destroyed) to complete the game.


Phil King Despite the title this isn't 'reet hellish'. In reality it's a weak Black Tiger variant. On the C64 it suffers from a general lack of colour and some chunky, undetailed sprites. The Amiga game looks totally different but is still unimpressive with jerky scrolling and again a rather limited colour scheme.
Basically all there is to do is jump and climb the platforms, shooting everything that moves. It sounds hectic but it isn't; the game bumbles along at a leisurely pace, especially with the hero's initially slow rate of fire. The collision detection is also unnecessarily fussy when it comes to the pillars - if you're not pixel-perfect you miss them completely and inevitably fall a frustratingly long way down. I was also extremely annoyed by a quirk on the C64 whereby the hero alternately shoots/throws a bomb. If you play this game you'll certainly know what hell is!
Stuart Wynne The C64 version looked very nice indeed on the screenshots, so it's a surprise the game itself looks so dull. As for gameplay it's very like Black Tiger - surely Dinamic could've been 'inspired' by a better coin-op. The prospect of making lots of pixel-perfect jumps from pillar to post is not a happy one, and the baddies are even more vicious - this really is the Film Planners' Revenge. As for the Amiga game, it looks a lot better (although scrolling is a bit jerky) and plays somewhat more enjoyably. The ability to play either of the two games is welcome, but Dinamic still seem in desperate need of original ideas and demanding gametesters.