Product Name
Litil Divil
Brief Description
Puzzle/Arcade action game - you control a guy named Mutt;
Mutt has been sent on a quest for a pizza in a maze with different
levels and no one has ever made it out yet!
Publisher
Gremlin Interactive Software
Carver House
2 - 4 Carver Street
Sheffield
England S1 4FS
(0114) 2753423
Copy protection
None
Cost
approximately $42 US (mail order price)
Special requirements
CD32 only game
It appears to work fine in PAL and NTSC modes on my NTSC CD32.
Review
This game has been out for some time now; I think in some respects it
is a ground breaking game for its artwork alone. The game play is another
story. I myself had been eagerly awaiting this game. I have had it over
a month now. I have managed to get to the second level. The premise of
the game is you control a little red guy called Mutt. Mutt is on a quest
to find a Pizza. The pizza is somewhere in a maze with 5 levels. The
levels consist of hallways and rooms. Each room is unique; some are
variations on a theme. You control Mutt with the CD32 control pad thing.
Mutt is little red guy with short wings and horns; hence the title 'Litil
Divil'. You start out each level at the edge of a bridge spanning a
chasm. To get past the bridge you have to defeat a big troll who is
armed with a club. Mutt is armed with a staff of wood. It is basically
a bit of arcade a style mini-game. The animation is really quite good
here. There are so many frames of animation that the action is quite
fluid. Obviosuly, the artists behind his game know how to animate things.
after you defeat the Troll, you can enter the maze. I should mention the
mini game is presented from a side view.
When in the actual maze, the view is like something like the classic
Dungeon Master. You have the perspective of being in a maze with Mutt
centered in the view. There is a bar indicating Mutt's health. As soon
as you are in the maze, Mutt's health will start to go down. When
Mutt runs out of health - game over. You are presented with Mutt getting
tossed in a magically conjured hole in the maze by the game's villain;
some guy called the Entity. But there is food in the form of apples,
cheese and other things in the maze scattered about. There is also gold;
gold is very important because to complete some of the obstacles in the
mazes Mutt will often need some sort of weapon or item and to get said
item you go to a shop to buy it - how convenient. You have got to wonder
about how come so many games have shops in them where everyone is out to
kill you. How do these shopkeepers make a living? Well, you never
actually see the shopkeepers in Litil Divil; if you enter one of the shop
rooms, you are presented with whatever items are available. This is
part of the puzzle aspect of the game; you have to figure out through
trial and error what item is needed in which room. Once you the have the
approraite item in some rooms they are automaticlly used or you have to
use them by pressing the blue button on the controller. As well, in the
corner of the screen when exploring the tunnels, there is a autmap showing
where you currently are. Gremlin was also kind of enough to provide
some graph paper with the game to make maps. And thoughout the tunnels
are pits, flame thrower, and other things that get in your way. You have
to make Mutt jump around a great deal in some parts of the tunnels. There
a waste of time and mostly just cause Mutt to lose a lot of health
are some tunnels that are because of the perils.
The other way to regain energy is if sucessfully complete a room;
also if you leave a room without completing it your engery will drop down.
When a room is completed the room is gone from the maze. Sometimes when
you complete a room, a new part of the maze is opened up.
There are many types of rooms, some are puzzle games where you have
to repeat sequences; others you have to fight something and defeat it
to get past. And some involve pulling ropes and levers to get to the
right combination to advance. There are something like 50 rooms to
explore. Some rooms are downright stupid because skill does not have
does not have much to do with it seems like if you stumble around long
enough you will finish them or you won't. But the graphics are great;
that is one of things that appeal to me in this game is the variety of
different rooms and creatures you encounter in them. It keeps in
interested in playing the game. Gremlin have gone the distance with the
artwork in this game. You encounter things like mermaids, witches, sumo
wrestlers fire breathing trees (yes, fire breathing trees). The rooms
are presented from various angles. Some rooms are bigger than the screen
size and scroll around if neccessary. The background art for the rooms
are often superb. You have to be bit patient to play this game because
you end up having to do things over and over and over again to sucessfully
get past some obstacle.
There is a save feature in 'Litil Divil' but you can only save what
level you are on. Say you are halfway through level 2, you can only
save the game at the beginning of level 2. Which is frustrating because
you have to do everything all over on that level again if you continue
a saved game. This is not Gremlin's fault; it comes down to the lack of
of non volatile RAM in the CD32. A lot of games have suffered because
of this. The manual for 'Litil Divil' claims that it will take advantage
of an expanded CD32 for saving game but it does not say how. I was
playing the game with a SX-1 attached to the CD32 and nothing special
occured when I tried to save the game. The SX-1 has an internal hard
drive.
I have not finished the game; I do wonder if I will ever find the
pizza. I hope there is some sort of end sequence in the game; one would
think so; I myself like to see some kind of animation or fanfare if I
sucessfuly complete a game. (note:I am back on level 1 trying to get
past this room; I had erased my saved game a while ago inadvertantly)
This game may not be to everyone's tempermant but if you don't
get too easily ticked off by wandering through tunnels and stupid rooms
and you appreciate good animation this must be a game for you. I think
this game is something of an achievement for its artwork. It shows that
Gremlin took some time to design the artwork and rooms in this game but
as I have said many of the puzzles in the room are hard to get past and
not very fun to repeat over and over to get through them. I would look
forward to sequel to this game. This game shows the potential for the
CD ROM format. 'Litil Divil' is basically an interactive cartoon.
Control
For the most part the game control is fine using the game pad.
But on some rooms it is a little awkward to precisely control
Mutt. The problem is worse with rooms that are isometric views
at some faked perspective.
Sound
The sound and music are fabulous. 'Litil Divil' has some of the
best music I have ever heard in a computer game. The music
is played from CD tracks. Mutt does not really talk but he make
all kinds of noises when he gets hurt or does something. In one
room if you complete it he looks at you and makes a snickering
laugh. The sound and music really add to game making it that
much richer.
@Sound@: 9
@Graphics@: 9.5
@Gameplay@: 6
@Lastability@: 6
@Value@: 7
@Overall@: 7.5
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