Aaargh!
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| Aaargh! | |
|---|---|
 Cover Art | |
| Developer(s) | Binary Design Sculptured Software |
| Publisher(s) | Arcadia Systems Melbourne House |
| Designer(s) | Steve Coleman Joe Hitchens |
| Artist(s) | Joe Hitchens |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple IIgs, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum |
| Release | Template:Vgy, Template:Vgy, Template:Vgy |
| Genre(s) | Action game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Aaargh! is a single-player action video game in which the player controls a giant monster with the goal of crushing and destroying everything in its path across different lands and periods of history. It was designed for Mastertronic's Arcadia Systems, an arcade machine based on the custom hardware of the Amiga, and was released in 1987. It was ported to a range of other platforms and released on these across 1988 and 1989. Electronic Arts distributed the Amiga version of the game.
Gameplay
The goal of the game is to find the golden dragon's egg. The player achieves this by destroying buildings in order to find Roc eggs, the discovery of each of which triggers a fight with a rival monster. When five eggs are found, the two monsters fight on a volcano to claim the dragon's egg.
The game is a single-player action game with fighting game elements. The player chooses to play as either a giant lizard or an ogre; the character that the player does not select becomes the player's rival to obtain the egg. Gameplay takes place across the 12 cities of the Lost Island, each of which comprises one level of the game. Each city is represented by a single static playing area that uses a form of 2.5D projection in order to give the impression of depth on the screen.
Reception
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Crash | 29% [2] |
| Computer and Video Games | 8/10 [1] |
| Sinclair User | 44/100 [3] |
| Your Sinclair | 48/100 [4] |
| ACE | 261/1000 [5] |
| Amiga Computing | 67% [6] |
| Zzap!64 | 87% [7] |
While reviewers praised the graphics and sound, particularly on the Amiga port, they criticised the gameplay - ACE magazine said that although the game had "good graphics, atmospheric sound and good gameplay" there was not enough challenge to the game and that players would "not want to spend much time playing a game you know you can beat easily"[5] - and ZX Spectrum reviewers were unimpressed by the fact that the game required levels to be loaded individually, with Your Sinclair magazine describing it as a "multi-level, multi-load, beat 'em, blowtorch 'em up which'll have you screaming its title each time you die and have to reload".[3][4]
The game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #141 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers normally assign a rating to a game ranging from 1 up to 5 stars, but they disliked this game so much that they ranked it with an "X" instead.[8]
See also
- Crush, Crumble and Chomp! (1981)
- Rampage (1986)
- The Movie Monster Game (1986)
References
- ^ Boughton, Paul (July 1988). "Aargh! (review)". CVG (81): 41.
- ^ Quinn, Mike (September 1988). "Aargh! (review)". Crash (68): 45.
- ^ a b Dillon, Tony (September 1989). "Aargh! (review)". Sinclair User (90): 46.
- ^ a b Ryan, Jackie (August 1989). "Aargh! (review)". Your Sinclair (44): 68.
- ^ a b Smith, Andy (August 1988). "Aaargh! (review)". ACE (11): 60.
- ^ Holmes, Chris (August 1988). "Aaargh! (review)". Amiga Computing (Vol. 1 No. 3): 43.
{{cite journal}}:|issue=has extra text (help) - ^ "Aaargh! (review)". Zzap!64 (42): 33. October 1988.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Dragon141was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
External links
- Aaargh! at MobyGames
- Aaargh! at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
- Aaargh! at Hall of Light
- Contemporary reviews of the arcade version at Solvalou.com
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