Spellbound Dizzy logo

CodeMasters * £7.99

Just when you thought he'd had his head smashed open and a soldier dipped into it, Dizzy returns. Here he's on a quest to collect a load of stars (pointy ones, not famous ones) and save his entire nest of relatives. 110 screens packed with small things to ump over as well as not-very-festive puzzles and the odd stilted conversation between the lad himself and other way-out Codie inventions.

Dizzy bobbles along in fine form, bouncing, swimming, collecting and generally doing all the things the kids should actually be doing in real life if they weren't hunched over their computers.

The graphics are bright, fun and not very ground-breaking, and the game won't unduly tax anyone over the age of eight. These are all good points, because the Dizzy series has sold amazingly well so far on the strength of them. And best of all, it's original, so you don't have to worry that little Herbert might already have it in his voluminous bedroom-based collection of software.



Spellbound Dizzy logo

Will the Codies ever stop producing games featuring an egg, of all things? It seems not. As the Dizzy series climbs new heights of popularity, the egg is fast becoming one of the most well-known heroes around. Well, on the budget scene he's one of the best known anyway. There have been loads of Dizzy games, some good, some not so good. The latest in the series is Spellbound Dizzy.

Spellbound Dizzy is the biggest Dizzy game ever produced (so it says here anyway) but not having played a great game of the others, I don't know how big it has to be to be the biggest. Their last major effort, Prince of the Yolk Folk, was one of the smallest games of all time, standing at only thirty screens, so I guess biggest ever could be an easy thing to do.

I can't understand why these games keep selling. There must be a lot of Dizzy fans out there, but I can't see the fascination of rolling an egg around a level trying to solve puzzles that have solutions that are pretty dumb at the best of times. Most of the puzzles seem to be solved more by luck than by judgement.

It's an arcade adventure, but not one that I would recommend to anyone above the age of ten. The whole point of the game is for you to run around collecting clues and solving puzzles, but the puzzles are not logical and don't make sense. Why have puzzles if they don't make sense?

Okay so the graphics are averagely cute but they look just like every other Dizzy game ever released. Maybe one day they'll come up with something new but while the old stuff sells why not keep pumping it out? I guess Spellbound Dizzy is an okay game, it just holds little appeal to someone like me.

If you prefer games with a little more substance to them then there are plenty about in the same price ranges. In fact there are loads of really brilliant titles available on budget, from Rainbow Islands to SWIV, so why not invest in one of these instead of this distinctly average game.