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| review - from "fish" spectrum zine, issue 6, may 1994 |
| reviewed by matt beal. |
| life
at fish can get a bit dull,
endlessly sorting saes and, er, getting issues out late.
once every so often, though, i get something sent through
the post which makes life seem that fishy bit brighter,
be it a postcard of the 197os blue peter presenters, or a letter
from somebody threatening to sue me. in this instance, it
was a tape containing hop 'n' chop, the lost shaw brothers game that was never
published. spook! (if you're wondering what happened to
the shaws - apparently they're now
in
liverpool,
cambridge and barnsley. ho hum). right. hop 'n' chop is a platformer which sees you as jack lumber, which must be the worst pun-ish name for a speccy game character since venturama, in which you played a chap called orson karte, if memory serves. hmm. i wonder who was responsible for that? (sounds of somebody flicking through back issues of ys). ha! thought as much. anyway, our jack has to chop down a number of trees in each level within a time limit and then return them to the log company, one by one, in order to make a lot of money and be able to feed mrs lumber and the little lumbers, presumably. along the way there are bees and things who are determined to stop you (come to think of it, they look a bit like chris b's bee with a cough) for some unspecified reason which you can shoot with some apples (or snowballs, or frisbees, depending on which level you're on), bonuses to pick up, slides to climb (and fall down again if you're particularly unlucky) and axe-grinders, with which you must sharpen your axe if it goes blunt. there's also a bonus level on which you must catch stars for extra gubbins, and, er other things. um. first of all, the graphics. they are rather nice, all colourful and cute and cuddly, much like the fish team. the whole thing is very well presented, and is in that unique shaw bros style (like the superkid games, or moontorc). actually, the main sprite looks a bit like the bloke from rainbow islands. sort of. there are a couple of nice touches, like the chopping-a-tree-down sequence, and the way a little speech bubble pops up when jack looses a life, and at other key moments in the game - things like "yikes!", "yowzers!", "ouch!", "oh no!", "arse!" and so on, except the last one, which was a lie. occasionally he says "eggnog", but I decided not to mention that as you'd probably think it was another whacky, crazy fish gag, wouldn't you? (no. a reader) pah. there's a tune playing in the background on 128k machines (and there's a 48k version, but that only plays on the menu) - it's not up to wonder stuff standards, obviously, but it's okay (even if it does sound a bit fuzzy). the gameplay is hop 'n' chop's forte - admittedly the animation's a bit jerky at times, but it doesn't hinder the game in the way it did to street fighter 2 (and it's a flip-screen affair, so no scrolling problems). it's fun to play and is jolly addictive, although it is a wee bit tricky and takes a bit to master each level (which isn't so much of a bad thing really). also, the time limit is a bit tight. well, very tight actually. tighter than an italian waiter's keks, as the bloke off red dwarf put it. this could be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how irritated you get by time limits, i s'pose. um. chris thompson got irritated by the fact that the baddies once killed, re-appeared should you go back onto that screen, but that's not too much of a problem really. all in all, hop 'n' chop isn't a barrier-breaking, show-stopping kinda game, but it is damn good fun, well presented and original (well, how many games do you know in which you have to chop down trees?), if slightly ecologically unsound. |
| ratings - fishometer |
| graphics: 8o% value: 81% playability: 79% lastability: 76% overall: 75%. |
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