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Bitmap Soft Reviews
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1-5 of 283 reviews
Timo’s Castle has been stuck in my cartridge port for a year now.
Every so often someone comes along that looks at things a little differently. When most people think “oh that tele program I liked as a kid didn’t translate to a Speccy game in quite the way I’d hoped” their next thought is generally “that’s a shame, now I move on with my life”. If you’re Tom Potter of Sausageware Games however, when Activision’s version of Knightmare falls short of expectations you go well, I’ll just make my own Knightmare, with blackjack and hoo…oh wait that’s Futurama.
What was I saying?
Oh yeah, Tom does things differently. That’s why for this follow up game, when he had the idea to make a colourful maze game using MPAGD, instead of making a flick screen game like the engine was designed for, he opted to push the envelope. Maybe that should be “push scroll” the envelope, as he’s gone and created a four-way scrolling environment to explore for Sausageware’s sophomore hit, S.C.I.O.N.
S.C.I.O.N. (or Special Covert Infiltration Operations Network to its friends) sees you take on the role of a member of a crack squad, hand-picked to take down an evil crime syndicate known as The Morticians. Your mission begins on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, where your first task is to battle your way through the terrain & some unfriendly locals to attempt to uncover the secret base.
Once you’ve tailored your controls and chosen from one of the two difficulty modes, you’re thrust right into the midst of a great run and gun action adventure. You start off equipped with a standard gun, limited bullets & a handful of smart bombs, but there are numerous pickups you can acquire on your travels including shields, smart bombs bullets and health.
These goodies are parachuted in during the levels. Between levels there’s also a clever shop system to buy extras, using coins dropped by your downed enemies, which brings to mind games like Fantasy Zone & Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road.
Each level has a decent sized map to explore, with different coloured keys to find that enable you to unlock new areas. There’s a bit of backtracking to be done at times, with some dead ends to contend with. Having a good sense of direction and those map making skills you picked up from the Speccy’s heyday will come in very handy here. Your cute main character can move & fire in 8 directions, which becomes essential in seeing off the nasties you encounter.
As more of a flick or single screen fan myself, the scrolling does take a bit of getting used to, but it certainly adds an extra dimension, as well as being an extremely impressive technical feat. I’m extremely impressed with how much game is squeezed into a single load. There’s even a 48k version, on which the only compromise I can find is the sound. Overall, the game is extremely polished. The graphics are vibrant and well defined, the soundtrack on the 128k version is great too.
Rumour has it that Tom’s next plans to bend MPAGD to his will, involve making a brand new Speccy dungeon crawler. I for one can’t wait to see how that turns out.
A lovely run and gun maze game for the Speccy. Lovely graphics and the tune will not leave my brain! The SCION and upgrade elements really give you a incentive to beat those baddies!
Thank you for the good and sturdy packing of the game Grelox Contagion. Also thanks for sharing the track and trace information. Will play the game with great pleasure.
I purchased this along with another CE. I am an international buyer (located in the US), and was very impressed with just how well-packaged they were. Not a single dreaded corner smash, and it was even protected against water damage.
I only wanted to review the CE contents and not the software, but I did test out the cartridge in original hardware (GBA, my GBC is having issues) and it runs perfectly.
The presentation for this one is beautiful and very eye-catching. It’s a hardcover tray with a windowed sleeve case, and comes with the paperboard envelope framed at the top which displays the game’s title. The items inside are neatly laid out, with the “loose” items (prints, certificate, poster) tucked inside of the envelope. The coin is bigger than I was expecting, and the poster is thicker paperboard like the prints and certificate. The USB card is a nice way of including all of the digital goodies while still being a “collectable” physical item.
I do kind of wish the game box art and cartridge differed from the standard edition to make them really special. Also the cartridge is black, not forest green as advertised (I suppose it could just be a very dark green, but it’s effectively black). Not the end of the world but colorful cartridges is a fun little bonus I enjoy.
I now have three CE sets from Bitmap Soft and I really appreciate how they don’t all use the same exact formula, but they all have a consistent premium “made for collectors by collectors” feel.