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Treasure Island Dizzy (a.k.a Dizzy 2) was first created on the ZX Spectrum machine in 1987 by the Oliver Twins, and gained a moderate note of success. It was subsequently ported to the Amiga (by the Graham Twins) two years later in 1989 to accommodate the sizable fan base the series had generated. Although the game was intended for the A500, Dizzy 2 works just as well on every Amiga (excluding a few unremarkable screen glitches on AGA machines).
Masters Of Code – The Oliver Twins
Dizzy - The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure (a.k.a Dizzy 1) was never ported to the Amiga even though some say the game had been a strong contender in its day. Following it's success on the 8 bit machines, Dizzy became a franchise which the Oliver Twins and Codemasters (a 50/50 partnership) were keen to develop. The series spawned seven original adventure games and a rake of related character tie-ins (including Fast Food and Dizzy Panic), although non of these ever matched the series' 8 bit notoriety or success.
In fact the main character, an egg, was never originally supposed to be an egg at all. The original developers decided on a shape which would allow the character to animate and walk smoothly, and be able to jump and collect things like all good platform adventures should. While the original Dizzy game was slow to take off, a sizable amount of mail from fans prompted this sequel - which went straight to the No.1 spot of the 8 bit gaming charts.
Eggs On Legs
The Amiga conversion of Dizzy 2 is almost a straight copy of the original, except this time with far superior graphics and a handful of new puzzles to boot. The title screen happily enjoys the familiar 8bit music and a press of the fire button lands us straight into the game. We begin on a deserted beach on the first of three islands, alone and with no clue as to where to go. A cliff blocks one way and a sizable ocean blocks the other. Fancy a dip? Don't! As soon as we step into the water we discover one of the drawbacks of this title - only one life! - and there are no extra lives either, which can be very frustrating if you should make just one careless mistake. Oh dear.
Picking up an old wooden box on the beach, we drop it next to the cliff and jump over to discover the main island interior. A bee buzzes above us - the first of the new Amiga features - and as we give it a quick head-butt we find a neat gold coin tumbles out ready to be collected. There are 30 gold coins in Dizzy 2, and all of these need to be found to complete the entirety of our mission. Coins are usually hard to spot; sometimes hidden behind bushes, inside wooden windows or door, and even inside a large fish - so the adventurer will often be seen clicking away at the scenery trying to tip on of these up.
A short walk inland and we find a small forest, which appears to harbour a native tree-house complex, and which is guarded by three tree traps. Once we discover just where these traps are, we are then free to roam the landscape in search of items of worth, and it's not long before a few puzzles begin to appear. First of all we need to get into the upper levels of the tree complex, which requires some kind of device to bring down a platform to our level. There is also a boulder in a mine which needs to be extracted, and a mysterious grave with an ominous warning attached. These will all need to be solved later, but in the meantime, is that a rubber snorkel I spy over there??
Wear A Rubber!
The Snorkel is perhaps the key item in the whole adventure as it enables our friendly egg to wander freely underwater. With this in mind it isn't long before we reach the second island, and here we see another spooky grave, a large totem pole, and a shop keeper determined to sell us a boat. This boat will eventually take us to the third island to complete the game. A few more items can be found here, and the player now begins to piece together the puzzles and attempts to see them through.
As the game requires things to be carried from one place to another, it is often necessary to ferry items all over the map - which although a staple of the Dizzy franchise often gets rather repetitive in this incarnation. This isn't helped by the denizens of the deep, who always manage to get in the way just as we begin to make real progress. Hey ho.
Life’s A Beach
The level design of Dizzy 2 on the Amiga is slightly bigger than those found on comparable 8 bit machines, so expect to find a few screens you've never seen before. There are also a few extra winks towards Indiana Jones in this version too! Unfortunately, this alone doesn't seem to cut it very much on the Amiga and somehow, strangely, the playability just isn't quite as good anymore. Sure the graphics are so much better than the originals - which isn't hard - but looking back now over 20 year later we see the graphics aren’t looking too great anymore. Compare this to the likes of Flashback or even First Samurai and we notice the retro feel is definitely retrograde.
Although there are many things to like about the Amiga conversion, there are equally as many things to annoy the player to insanity. One of these is the game music, which although sounds cool for the first five minutes or so, eventually grates heavily on the nerves. Luckily we can turn this off with a key press. The second annoyance is the way the character can easily die at any given moment during the numerous water crossings, and those players that just want to run off and get the job done may be notably disappointed.
Overall, Treasure Island Dizzy hasn't weathered the test of time as well as some of it's contemporaries - including many of it's further sequels. The graphics and sound (although neat at the time) now seem dated, and this affects the gameplay too. The puzzles, while quite easy and obvious, often require too much padding around the set to be really fun, and quite a lot of trial and error is needed to get the items in the right order and to the right places to be useful. Having said that, there is still some charm in the old egg yet - and Dizzy 2 on the Amiga still has some of that old 8 bit feel tucked under it’s shell.
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Although not quite 'ugly', the low-res graphics along with their jaggy edges certainly leave a lot to be desirable by today's standards. Despite this, the game does manage to capture some of the originals cartoon feel.
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Annoying music and click-clak sound effects are not enough to save the sound in this game. First Samurai it ain't!
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Easy to solve puzzles intersperced with torcherous water crossings just about sums it up. The game plays slightly harder than the C64 and 8 bits but somehow feels less rewarding.
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| Hardcore Dizzy fans will like this effort perhaps because if it's added little touches and cartoon feel. Casual players will quickly find it repetitive and annoying - shame. |
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