One of the worst. Avoid it!,  Wednesday, 03 October 2007 Since I've always been a fan of that guy that camouflages himself in black armour (and I still love the first two Burton films), I've played almost every Batman game ever conceived in my gaming experience. Console games, computer games, handheld games. Sadly, most of those games sucked (big surprise, it's the usual standard for licensed games), and this Amiga game is one of the worst. I wonder how can the same company (Konami) release two games based on the same film, and one of them is superb (Super NES) and the other so bad (Amiga). Konami always was (and STILL is, and I guess forever will be) greatly respected in the console market for their attention to detail and quality, but I guess the developers of their computer division (Gametek) weren't as competent. Other abysmal games like American Gladiators or Brutal: Paws of Fury, alongside Batman Returns, prove that.

Some of the backgrounds (namely, the first two stages) are the only really good aspect of the game, with scenery taken from the film (just see the big statues). Unfortunately, the rest of the graphics belong in a NES game and not on the home computer that saw games like Shadow of the Beast. And it's almost tragic that this is a 1993 game (when 2D games had matured). The sprites are very small and thus not detailed, and animation likes like broken puppets. The backgrounds of the later levels are poor as well, with a BAD choice of colours. Heck, even the static "story" screens aren't good (except the one in the intro with the bat signal).

The opening tune when the logo appears is really good, and it reminds me of Danny Elfman's music from the film. Unfortunately, the in-game music couldn't be worse. All the stages (even the last one) have the same irritating background tune, which has nothing to do with the film or Batman. The SFX are plainly functional, but the badness of the music makes you want to turn the sound off.

Gameplay! WHAT gameplay? The controls are unresponsive and "jumping" is a nightmare, making the game really hard. A good platform game firstly needs good jumping controls, and this falters badly making you fall to your death countless times.

I've played and finished it once (with a trainer), and I played it again to capture some screenshots. If you are not a Batman fan, I doubt that you'll play it as much as I did. In fact, you won't even bother to get past the loading screen.

Most games based on films suck badly, and this is one of the worst. Avoid it, and just see it only if you like the film. If you want some good Batman for Amiga try Batman: The Movie, or if you want some good Batman on any format try the unbeaten king, Batman Returns for Super NES.

This review was originally submitted by the classicamiga member one-second.

 One hell of an amazing game,  Wednesday, 03 October 2007 If you are into AD&D and Dragonlance then you will love this game. You will find appearances from all the classic characters such as Camron, Tanis, and even Taselhoff. The game is an immersive experience taking you deep into murky dungeons and castles.

Finding the DragonLance is the ultimate purpose to this game. Along with defeating the red dragons, the flying citadels, and removing the dark queen and the brief appearance of Lord Soth.

The levelling system is great, almost making you only having to take on big battles and only a few of the little ones to get good characters going.

The graphics are nothing special, but they not that bad for a standard AD&D game at the time. The characters are sharp and the Amiga version is the only one to include some pre-made character skins that weren't available on other systems.

The sounds are again best on the Amiga version. The high pitch death yell of goblins and other small monsters were amusing, and the spells were the best on the Amiga version too with each having a distinctive sound, which was not the case on the PC version where they all sounded the same.

The gameplay might be a little complicated for any non AD&D rpg players, but not that hard to grasp as the game takes care of the majority of the usual AD&D headaches associated with the system.

Making use of the map is only available in certain areas which can get annoying, and switching between players to equip items and resting is the only other real tasks outside of battle.

The fighting is laid out as an overview of the character as icons, with the action being turn based starting with movement followed by a characters actions. This leading to a series of events cycling through all characters on screen, much like most turn based combat systems. All movement being via the number pad.

If you are a fan of AD&D this can be an amazing game. It has so many twists and turns that it keeps you wanting to know more of the story. The deaths of your comrades and the appearances of god like enemies can amaze amazing, and the story makes you bond with the game. It's addictive gameplay could mean that after a long time of not playing it you can find yourself wanting to re-submerge myself once again into the realm of Krynn

If your an AD&D Fan and even more a dragonlance fan , play this game, you will love it.

This review was originally submitted by the classicamiga member TweaKiNG and updated by Harrison.

 If you like classic RPG games, play this!,  Wednesday, 03 October 2007 This game was amazing for its time, being one of the very first to create an interactive real-time visual 3D environment within an RPG game and it went on to inspire many other games including the Eye Of The Beholder series, Hired Guns, Captive and many more.

The game begins at the start of a dungeon and lets you choose from a number of characters to enlist in your party, to make up a total of four. These characters await you encased in pictures along the walls within the first area of the dungeon, so you can view them all and pick the ones you want in your party. Choosing one reincarnates them into your party ready for adventure.

Dungeon Master is a very traditional RPG dungeon adventure. As you progress down through the dungeon, you will encounter a lot of different enemies, getting a lot harder the farther you go down. And there is a fair share of puzzle work to this game too, with it involving a lot of key finding and lever pulling, moving of walls and hidden doors.

Without maps this game is quite the challenge as the dungeon corridors can all begin to look alike as you progress, so many players mapped the dungeon on graph paper as they went to make life easier. A complete set of maps for the game will be appearing on here very soon.

The magic system is quite different in this game. Based on glyphs (or runes) that all your characters can use, spells can be cast if you knew the right combination of glyphs. You can try to use all of the spells right from when you start if you know them, but most of the time your characters wont be able to cast the spells to begin with as they aren't skilled enough. But if you keep trying to cast these spells you will eventually gain levels in magic and the spells will work more often, and as you gain levels they will become stronger too.

This is the same for all other skills in the game. Fighting increases your fighting skills, healing increases your priest skills, throwing increases your ninja skills, and casting spells increases your wizard skills. Gaining levels in all these skills increases damage in fights, the ability to heal more damage, the accuracy and damage of ranged weapons, and the success and strength of your magic.

Eating and drinking is also a big factor in this game, where you have to make sure your characters do this or they begin to suffer damage from starvation. To begin with this is easy as food is dropped by a lot of the weaker enemies you encounter and water can be found in wall based fountains that you can use containers on to fill up. But finding food and water deeper in the dungeon isn't so easy, so managing your food and water supplies becomes more important as you progress.

With the graphics in this game you might develop tunnel vision, as the grey walls are nearly identical throughout most of the adventure. This is one of the main reasons that drawing a map became very important so you don't get lost. The monsters you encounter have a few movement and attack animations and some of them are pretty original, but not that amazing to watch in action. There are a large variety of them, each well drawn and different.

The game has good sound effects that were not that bad for the time. The shriek of the mummies made for a good laugh and hearing your sword or axe hit a door made a nice thud. But the best aspect was being able to hear something walking around before actually facing it , or not hearing anything, turning a corner and then being surprised by a yell or attack.

The control system in Dungeon Master is extremely easy. If you can point and click and press the directional keys your set. Everything is mouse driven throughout the the entire game including moving, attacking, picking up items, and using the items. Very easy and this helps make the game even more addictive.

This control system was another aspect that was original and unique at the time. Before Dungeon Master most RPGs needed keyboard input, with many still needing commands to be entered. A completely mouse driven system was very revolutionary at the time.

The Lifespan of this game all depends how much you like Role Playing Games. If you only having a passing interest then you many start to become frustrated with the later levels, in which case you could knock a couple of points from the lifespan. But if you are really into this type of game, then you will probably become addicted very quickly and want to finish it, and it is definitely worth playing to see some of the later levels. And once completed you may still want more, in which case the direct expansion, Chaos Strikes Back, is well worth looking at, and the AGA sequel Dungeon Master II is well worth playing. This is definitely a game worth playing.

This review was originally submitted by an old classicamiga member TweaKiNG. It has since been updated and expanded by Harrison.

 Keeps your Joystick Pumping!,  Wednesday, 03 October 2007 As a rocket-powered, leather clad hero, you fly around the world fighting relentless hordes of Nazis and gathering rocket parts.

The Nazis are mining lunarium (which fuels their spaceships, bombs, and your rocket pack) from the moon; you must steal enough rocket parts to build a spaceship that you can fly to the moon for the big showdown.

Besides cunning, your only assets are your rocket pack, radium pistol, wrist monitor, and secret decoder wheel. While the quest for rocket parts requires strategic planning, the game is peppered with arcade sequences to keep your joystick pumping.

The Verdict

Graphics.
Not the bad overall , The flying sequences were well done, and the old war time effects made the feel of the game.

Sound.
With military style action music, it was great to set the mood. Especially during take off , or fighting the Nazis.

Gameplay.
Taking off was the hardest thing about this game , it takes a lot of practice to get the hang of it.

Lifespan.
The more you unravel in the story , the more you want to see. You definitely want to see what's on the moon , and how to get their.

Overall.
This is an awesome game , and it's totally different from what games are out today, I totally recommend this game to anyone.

Review originally by the classicamiga member TweaKiNG.

 I still have nightmares about this game!,  Friday, 27 July 2007 This game was re-released as a budget game and it was at this point that I "accidentally" purchased it. Not having much money to spend on new games one week I decided to take a chance and bought a couple of games from a budget range. This being one of them.

The actual concept of the game is fine. It is very similar to After Burner in how it plays, with it being a flying style shoot 'em up, using a sprite based graphics engine that scales the sprite made scenery as you fly into the screen, supposedly giving the effect of flying forwards. Sadly this isn't the effect it gives in this game as the sprites don't actually scale, but are instead just lined up one behind the other and in rows. It also only created a limited idea of distance into the screen as you only ever see about 4 rows of sprites at any time, so your point of view is very short.

It does at least give the impression of horizon as the landscape does tilt as you manoeuvre the helicopter during flight. But even this isn't done well. Normally you would expect a game to actually rotate all of the sprites slightly to create the illusion of the landscape tilting, but in this game it shifts them all up and down so you end up with a series of sprites still straight but with big steps between them. This looks horrible.

The gameplay does fair better than the graphics, with it at least being playable. Although the difficulty level is very high due to unforgiving collision detection and slow screen updates. For this reason you won't play it for long and will quickly become frustrated and stop playing.

It has been a while since I played this game, and the music couldn't have been that great as I cannot remember it at all. I do however remember the intro tune that played at the title screen and that was OK.

There are definitely much better shoot 'em ups for the Amiga that you should try before this one. Similar games that are better include Space Harrier and Afterburner. But you might have a bit of fun giving this a try. Just don't expect it to be that great.