Hero of the Golden Talisman (C64, 1985)
Graphics-6.5 Sound-6 Control-6.5 Challenge-7 Story-6
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-5.5 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-5.5
+
Mini-map (shows the basic layout of the whole world, indicates which rooms have and have not been visited yet and also alerts the player to the presence of items within a given "room" (the map actually displays a chunk of screens as one tile so it's more like a general clue))
Auto-fire
Item inventory (5 slots)
Weapon upgrades which can be toggled on and off (bosses are weak to certain weapons - these all function the same way though)
Can jump onto and off of ropes
Some interesting tools for the time (placeable ropes which let you reach new areas - can only be placed in specific spots (large grey tiles) though, candles to light up dark rooms (consumable items - lit rooms stay lit))
Invincibility power up (Invisibility "spell")
Color coded keys
Shoot while moving
Basic cutscene before beginning (still artwork and text)
Minor spatial awareness and platforming puzzles
Better animation than in the amstrad version
Diagonal underwater movement
Some minor shortcuts
Persistent items - a dropped item stays where you put it (can only drop an item by replacing a placed item with it, the rightmost item in the inventory is replaced)
Breakable walls
+/-
Mostly linear structure (boss gates, can get some keys in any order)
Flip screen
No item drops from enemies (HP or air supply) - have to find placed items
Enemies spawn at the edge of the screen rather than all over the place like in the Amstrad version (see Zelda 1) here - Good in that there are fewer cheap hits but sometimes bad in that they're easier to take out. On the other hand they don't seem to continuously respawn while you're in the room in the Amstrad version
Sometimes diferent enemy patterns in the Amstrad version
Fast climbing and swimming on Amstrad
No knockback or invincibility time after taking a hit
Health refill after passing dark grey gates
-
Some control/interface issues (drop all the way down to the bottom of a water filled area before you can swim when falling into water, no jump height or mid-air control+you bounce back if you jump into a wall and you can't grab onto a rope during this bounce, fall straight down if you move off of a ledge (again no mid-air control), the map doesn't show room connections (each square seems to represent 4x4 in-game rooms), can't shoot while climbing, kind of unforgiving hit detection on items)
Slow climbing and swimming
Can't simply drop an item somewhere (only replace it with a placed one) - 5 item inventory and keys take up a whole slot. The consumable wall breaker weapons/scrolls also take up a slot
Trial & error (some underwater traps where you can't see the path to take to get out of water - have to find a rope to climb out, jumps between screens to progress where if you fail (jump slightly wrong so that you bounce back) you also have to replay fairly long segments at times - rather tedious at times and it's repeated a lot)
No save or password save and no lives
Some backtracking and points of no return (no teleporters or other means of fast travel)
Unavoidable damage from enemies and bosses (very frequently respawning flying enemies in various rooms)
Kind of repetitive - identical bosses and some enemies are sprite swapped versions of the first enemy
Fairly bland looking environment, No in-game music
Annoying spider enemies (can't hit them even if crouching)
Some repeated rooms
Notes:
-Beat about 60% of the game
Level Design-5.5 Frustration-8 Fun-5.5 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-5.5
+
Mini-map (shows the basic layout of the whole world, indicates which rooms have and have not been visited yet and also alerts the player to the presence of items within a given "room" (the map actually displays a chunk of screens as one tile so it's more like a general clue))
Auto-fire
Item inventory (5 slots)
Weapon upgrades which can be toggled on and off (bosses are weak to certain weapons - these all function the same way though)
Can jump onto and off of ropes
Some interesting tools for the time (placeable ropes which let you reach new areas - can only be placed in specific spots (large grey tiles) though, candles to light up dark rooms (consumable items - lit rooms stay lit))
Invincibility power up (Invisibility "spell")
Color coded keys
Shoot while moving
Basic cutscene before beginning (still artwork and text)
Minor spatial awareness and platforming puzzles
Better animation than in the amstrad version
Diagonal underwater movement
Some minor shortcuts
Persistent items - a dropped item stays where you put it (can only drop an item by replacing a placed item with it, the rightmost item in the inventory is replaced)
Breakable walls
+/-
Mostly linear structure (boss gates, can get some keys in any order)
Flip screen
No item drops from enemies (HP or air supply) - have to find placed items
Enemies spawn at the edge of the screen rather than all over the place like in the Amstrad version (see Zelda 1) here - Good in that there are fewer cheap hits but sometimes bad in that they're easier to take out. On the other hand they don't seem to continuously respawn while you're in the room in the Amstrad version
Sometimes diferent enemy patterns in the Amstrad version
Fast climbing and swimming on Amstrad
No knockback or invincibility time after taking a hit
Health refill after passing dark grey gates
-
Some control/interface issues (drop all the way down to the bottom of a water filled area before you can swim when falling into water, no jump height or mid-air control+you bounce back if you jump into a wall and you can't grab onto a rope during this bounce, fall straight down if you move off of a ledge (again no mid-air control), the map doesn't show room connections (each square seems to represent 4x4 in-game rooms), can't shoot while climbing, kind of unforgiving hit detection on items)
Slow climbing and swimming
Can't simply drop an item somewhere (only replace it with a placed one) - 5 item inventory and keys take up a whole slot. The consumable wall breaker weapons/scrolls also take up a slot
Trial & error (some underwater traps where you can't see the path to take to get out of water - have to find a rope to climb out, jumps between screens to progress where if you fail (jump slightly wrong so that you bounce back) you also have to replay fairly long segments at times - rather tedious at times and it's repeated a lot)
No save or password save and no lives
Some backtracking and points of no return (no teleporters or other means of fast travel)
Unavoidable damage from enemies and bosses (very frequently respawning flying enemies in various rooms)
Kind of repetitive - identical bosses and some enemies are sprite swapped versions of the first enemy
Fairly bland looking environment, No in-game music
Annoying spider enemies (can't hit them even if crouching)
Some repeated rooms
Notes:
-Beat about 60% of the game