Stormbringer

David Jones? (1988). Programmed by David Jones/ ST conversion Andrew Shore. Graphics by D. Jones. Music by D. Jones.

Stormbringer sells itself as a 'true graphic adventure'. While this is not entirely true, and it plays like a slightly more grown up version of Dizzy, it looks pretty and there seems to be a reasonable game tucked away behind there as well. The gameplay involves you travelling round an attractive and detailed landscape, pressing the fire button to access a menu, through which you can in interact with the various objects and inhabitants. So you tootle around trying not to get zapped by a slightly annoying cloud that seems to have it in for you. You seem to have a finite amount of energy, but there doesn't seem to be any way of telling how much this is. Two zaps from the cloud would seem to be enough to drain it though, and it seems to be reducing rapidly all the time from just being alive in fact! Examining characters sometimes reveals clues and giving them various bits and bobs sometimes gets items out of them. You can use these to progress through the game. For example the first character you meet can't work out what the smell is. Examining the items you are carrying suggests one of them is a bit fishy. Give this to the man and you get a wand. Another Robin Hood character wants a golden egg for his newspaper. What a golden egg for a copy of the Sun!?!? Outrageous. Anyway you can get the egg by picking up the chicken hanging around, and the sun suggests a wizard is needed in situations vacant. Handily you've picked up a disguise kit and if you can hold yourself back from dressing as a blonde bimbo, one of the disguises is that of a wizard. And so on. If you can't be bothered with the clues then the game can be solved by trial and error. It's a fun little game, if you like this sort of thing and the graphics are endearing, though the outrageously large title taking up half the screen is a bit annoying. An ok chip tune warbles away in the background, which you can turn off with one of the items in your inventory at the beginning of the game, but not later. Which is annoying. If Dizzy floated your boat and you can't get enough, Stormbringer is a worthy game for you to try.

Zogging Hell Rating: 6/10

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