New Zealand Story

Title		New Zealand Story
Game Type	Platform
Company		Ocean/Taito 1989
Players		1
Compatibility	All using 1.3 rom
HD Installable	No
Submission	angus@angusm.demon.co.uk

Review
I'm not generally a big fan of platform games, and even more so when they
are of the "cute" variety. New Zealand Story is an exception though,
basically because it's just so darn good.

 You are a chick, a baby chicken, not one of Keith Richard's girlfriends,
and while in the zoo with all your brothers and sisters a rather
unpleasant walrus comes along, sticks you all in a sack and legs it.
Luckily, you escape and your objective in the game is to make your way
through each level and save one of your brothers or sisters.

 The game is attractively presented and features 4-way scrolling, and
fairly decent sound effects and music. What makes the game realy stand out
though is the amount of detail. The levels are populated by all sorts of
creatures that try and impede your progress. Naturally therefore, they
must be killed. Upon their destruction some bonus of some sort is left
behind. It's usually fruit or something to eat but frequently it'll be a
weapon upgrade or some sort of equipment. The various baddies that you
must defeat are highly varied, there are the flying teddy bears, you can
steal their craft, the vampire type creatures, and the one that seems
fated to cause me the most amount of stress, the jumping cats. The game
may initially appear cute, but the emphasis is on wiping out the
opposition, not pixel perfect jumping, and this suits me down to the
ground. It's been very inventively put together, and it takes a lot of
self discipline concentrating on simply finishing each level and not going
around trying to kill everything, and collect every bonus. I tend to get
wiped out in fairly short order.

A cracker of a game then, and one that ought to appeal universally. Hey,
my wife would like this. Inventive, engrossing, addictive and fun.

Alphabetical list.