| MICROPROSE |
32K CASS. |
| 1/4
PLAYERS |
32K DISK |
Silly title! Still I suppose that Tarzan is copyrighted, so Floyd is
as good as any. In this game you, as Floyd, have to rescue the lovely
Janice by thrashing your way through the jungle which is set out like a
combination of Apple Panic and Frogger. Instead of ladders you have
vines to climb and instead of the assorted perils of Frogger, you have
snakes, alligators, tigers, pygmies, monkeys and elephants all wandering
along ready to eat or squash you. You still have the river with boats to
jump on to get across. On the way to saving Janice, you can score points
by capturing birds and 'punching pygmies'. Trouble is, it is hard to
tell the difference between the birds, pygmies and monkeys, and the
monkeys are deadly.
The biggest plus of the game is that it allows up to four players
(all Floyds?) at the same time to race against each other in a bid to
become the first to rescue the damsel. The screen is very colourful with
snakes hissing back and forth, alligators opening and closing their
mouths, monkeys swaying to and fro, etc., and Floyd actually runs with
arms and legs going full pelt. Point him in the right direction with the
joystick and press the fire button to watch him bound along or jump over
the animals. Watch out for those poison pygmy darts on the way! Once you
get the timing right for your jumps, the game is not too difficult and
as you have unlimited Floyds, it doesn't matter too much if you are
eaten - you only return to the beginning. Screen two is harder,
obviously, and screen three has the river to cross and plenty of
elephants. Playing solo, I quickly got up to screen three and once I had
mastered riding the elephants, managed to rescue Janice. I eagerly
looked forward to the super challenges of screen four only to find that
the game ended. You have to start at a higher level to get to screens
four and five.
To master this game is fairly easy, but then it is not really a one
player game. All the fun comes in racing against the other Floyds and
picking up bonus birds and pygmies whilst watching your opponents being
eaten by alligators! At times, the game can get quite hilarious and you
won't know whether to concentrate on your own Floyd or watch the others
in peril.
If you are a dedicated gamer and welcome the big challenge, don't
bother with Floyd of the Jungle, but if you want some FUN, particularly
if you know someone with two more joysticks, this could be just the
game. I imagine that the kids will love it.
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