Prince Megahit

I was expecting that last post to inspire a tsunami of disgust and contempt - but none such came. Somehow, it seems strangely disappointing.

Anyway, here's something I came across recently: Footage of the Commodore 64 version of the original Prince of Persia:



I heard about a C64 conversion of Prince of Persia about twenty years ago: back then the C64 was slowly on the way out but I knew of Prince of Persia and was kinda excited about it. Of course, the conversion was started but never showed up - and it is only now, as in the past twelve months, that the someone has finally completed the game and unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

Looking at the video itself - I'm....astonished. I was a loyal C64 user for many years but seeing this I never knew the C64 could produce something like this. Sure there were some great games on the C64 that involved the system being pushed to the limit (the Last Ninja series comes to mind) but this is staggering. I said last week in my assessment of Double Dragon that the C64 was capable of so much better and here is all the proof I'll ever need.
It goes to show that sometimes great games can come out of an then aging system being squeezed for every last ounce of oomph (see: God of War and Chrono Trigger for other examples)

Bottom of the Barrel (no.2): Double Dragon

I have to admit I have little to talk about today - so what the hey, I may as well do another Bottom of the Barrel and rip into another game which I deem one of the worst ever made.

So we will dip into another game I played as a kid on the Commodore 64. Now I could go on and on about more recent games but a) as an adult I have my own money so I've been very careful in my game purchasing and b) there does lie the disturbing thought that if gaming tragedies like the one I'm about to tell you about are forgotten, the tragedy may repeat itself.

Anywho let's talk Double Dragon: One of the biggest gaming hits of the eighties. It was a big deal in the arcades and certainly offered a lot to the player: Two-player action, a then unheard of selection of fighting moves, huge sprites, and a somewhat compelling plot where the girlfriend of player character Billy Lee is kidnapped by a bunch of street punks so he, along with brother Jimmy, set out to rescue her. In it's day, Double Dragon was a big hit, an inspiration to many games to follow in the beat-em-up genre and was converted to every home system imaginable.

So how did the Commodore 64 version turn out?
......you really want to know?"



.........so where do I begin?
Well, much like I said in my Chase HQ assessment, I knew for fact that the Commodore 64 could better than this. Much better. But THIS! This is is so bad it defies belief!  The sprites are so small! The combat is so dull ("doof-doof-doof-ugh!")! The animation is so appalling! And Billy looks nothing like his arcade counterpart! This game has had a reputation of being one of the worst Commodore 64 games ever made and rightly so.
 But really that is as much I can say about this game - Just watch the video above and bear witness to the abomination  that this game is

I guess it goes to show that sometimes the game you played as a child is better left in the past...