The PROWLER Reviews:Baldies



From: kce@netcom.com (Big Bad Wolf)

Sorry to get in a word edgewise in between the Console vs. PC flamers ..
But I just got Baldies!  

Jaguar CDROM, Baldies, $54 at Bits O' Fun mail order
 
[ Bits O' Fun plug -- Dave Davis is great!  Very friendly,
  cooperative, and my order came a day EARLY.  How's that for
  service?? ]
 
Overview:
Baldies at first seemed to be a research/economics/population control,
and strategic warfare game.  Virtually no tactics except for the placement
of bombs and haphazzard direction of soldiers via the shield icon.  You can
build houses, populate your land mass, invent weapons, vehicles, transports,
reshape your landmass, switch baldies colors, and more.
 
Graphics:
Nothing eye-popping here or that screams 'Next-Generation Graphics!!'
in your face, but nevertheless more than adequate for the task.  I thought
the graphics on average were a little better than the ones for
Theme Park.  I am not sure how they compare to Cannon Fodder, since I
don't have that game.  The baldies are easy to pick out and the different
baldies are easy to tell from the other, with enough distinguishing
characteristics (color, clothing worn, type of walk, etc) to avoid mistaking
one for the other.  The animations were very good for this type of game,
as were the explosions, scrolling, opening of menus/houses, although they
could have been a bit clearer.  Lots of color and movement on the
screen!  All in all, very nicely done with nothing all that special,
and which certainly does not hinder gameplay in any way.  The opening
claymation FMV was in a word, surreal.  Skip through this if you don't
want to be weirded out.
 
Sound:
At the beginning, the music wasn't that bad.  But as the game progressed,
it got more and more annoying, and did not change from sub-level to
sub-level.  I haven't gotten to the other worlds just yet, so I don't know
if they change when you reach them.  I didn't turn it off, though, which
just goes to show just how much a glutton for punishment I am :)
The explosions sounded nicely with a decent crunch, the sound effects
for the various traps were nicely done, as were the others.  Very low-key
here.  I think with the room they had on the CD, they could have had
different tunes for the different sub-worlds.  Hmm ..
 
Gameplay:
This is where this game has the most potential.  There is a balance that
you have to keep between the workers, the builders, the soldiers and
the scientists and that depends on what type of task you are trying to 
accomplish.  If what you are trying to accomplish is getting more 
Baldies, then what you do is reconfigure your houses to have more
'breeder' Baldies and produce more that way.  Or, if you want to attack
the enemy, you reconfigure your houses to produce more ammunition.
You don't need the memory cart for this one, since there is a password
level system.  All in all, not bad.  It's certainly a lot more 
different than the strategy/tactics games I'm used to, and provides
a lot of fun while and addiction while you're playing it.  
The real fun involved finding out what inventions there were and what
you can get from the creatures you drop into the science houses.  There
was also a hint that you can combine inventions, but I haven't done this
yet.  There are two types of inventions that I haven't gotten to yet
and those are the 'Vehicles' and 'Acts of You' type of inventions.
I imagine that these will come later in the game.
 
There were a few personal peeves of mine that I found a little annoying.
For example, there was virtually no tactics at all except in which
direction you want flying baldies to fly, placement of the attack shield,
and placement of hazzards.  
 
A good game nevertheless!!  Unfortunately, this and all the others will
take a back seat when Electronics Boutique calls to tell me that Defender
2000 has arrived.  
 
Graphics: 7
Sound: 7
Music: 4
Gameplay 8.5
 

PROWLER The Atari Console Disk Magazine February 27, 1996

Copyright (c) 1996 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 01