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Deviants
Players £1.99 Apr 1988 YS28
Graphics: 8/10
Playability: 8/10
VFM: 8/10
Addictiveness: 6/10
8/10 Overall
 
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Top-notch cheapie platformer from the author ofJoe Blade. It's positively deviant (f'nar)!
Duncan Macdonald
Roll up, roll up! It's flick screen budget platform game time! Run around the alien battlestar. Shoot the aliens. Run around the battlestar a bit more. Prime a number of bombs. Make an origami paper hat (eh???).
    The blurb says: "As the last star-warrior, you must complete the mission and uphold the honour of your fallen comrades" If this was a crappy game, I could have been incredibly waggish and said 'I'd rather have played one of the fallen comrades.' Unfortunately the game isn't crappy, so I can't.
    Deviants is pretty easy to describe, in fact I've already described it; you shoot aliens and prime bombs. This bomb-priming bit is quite tricky (or it is if you're as mind numbingly thick as I am), because you have to complete a little logic 'prob' within a time limit. Fail and you die. I just kept dying; my highest priming rate was a pitiful two bombs, and that was blind luck (literally - I had my eyes shut). Anyway, onto the 'look' of the game.
    Question: What separates a good platform game from a dud platform game?
    Answer: Crikey, I wouldn't send you out to buy a pound of sausages. (Whoops, wrong answer).
    Proper Answer: Quite simple really; graphics, animation, colour, sound, playability and price. (Same as any other type of game. Haw Haw.)
    Deviants scores well. It gets a tick for each of the above (quite a big one, actually). Nicely coloured bold sprites move smoothly over an attractive playing area with absolutely ne attribute clash (a bit Dan Dare-ish actually). There's yer extra bullets and yer extra energy to pick up and also a 128K tune (on the menu screen, anyway). All in all the game is very... erm, what's the word? Slick!! Yes, that'll do - it's very Slick. There's another word for it as well. Uuum - aah yes: Cheap! Deviants is Slick and also Cheap. And well worth the spondies, too. Boing!!

Ratings given by other magazines
   CRASH  6/10    Sinclair User  9/10   
Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database

Duncan Macdonald has kindly authorised this site
Reviews in other magazines:
       
 
Crash
 
Sinclair User
 
MicroHobby
 
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