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Titanic Blinky
Zeppelin £3.99 Jan 1992 YS73
Life Expectancy: 89 
Instant Appeal: 84 
Graphics: 84 
Addictiveness: 83 
Overall: 88°  
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If you don't get Titanic Blinky you'll be all adrift in the New Year.
James Leach
1912 was a pretty bad year for ocean travel. Loads of rich people set sail for America, and, spookily enough, they never actually got there. Mister Iceberg got in the way.
    Up until now, people have left the grand ocean liner pretty much alone (except for those guys who went to visit it in a weird little diving bell), but Zeppelin have decided it's the place to set a ghostly platform game, Which brings us fairly neatly to Blinky. He's a troubleshooting, nice sort of ghost who, instead of haunting people and being really scary, helps those who ask him nicely enough. And Mr Arthur J Hackensack is asking nicely enough.
    Which brings us fairly neatly to Arthur J Hackensack. He is an incredibly rich old guy who's had a burning desire to raise the Titanic. Now he's managed to get the money and the heavy lifting equipment to do it, so up it comes. However he's forgotten something pretty important.
    Ghosts. Hideous, terrifying ghosts. Of course, there are bound to be loads of spectres wandering its flooded decks. When Arthur J Hackensack realised this, he got on the phone to Blinky.
    Which brings us rather raggedly to you. You have to guide Blinky all over the ship, eradicating the ghosts and making the place fit for human habitation once again. It's a tough job, you can bet your bottom dollar on that, cos the ship's pretty darn big.
    
Are there Creepy Crawlies too?
Oh absolutely. As you can imagine, if you leave a large ship at the bottom of the sea for 80 years, a lot of slimey, smelly fishy things are going to move in and make it their home. Snails (special underwater ones, presumably), flapping fish and sea birds (above the waterline) have all taken up residence.
    So what we've got here is a large platform game with loads of monsters and places to explore. What you have to do is collect notes. You drop these into the funnel, and when you've got enough you can get diving apparatus to explore the underwater levels.
    Fine, but the question on everybody's lips is "What happened to Lord Lucan?" (No it isn't, it's "Is Titanic Blinky any good?" Ed) Oh yes, that's right.
    
Is Titanic Blinky any good?
Well, the answer to that is yes, mon petit chickadees. Yes, it's pretty spanky, and here's why; the game is very quick, responsive and smooth. It's cram-jam packed with details; the backgrounds are filled with bits and bobs which, no doubt, were seen on the real Titanic, and all the creatures and stuff that you meet look pretty darn spiffy as well.
    The only thing with Titanic Blinky is that it's pretty tough. He's a big sprite and there really isn't much space on the screen so you keep getting killed.
    Although he's a big character and keeps on bumping into things, the collision detection, unlike the original Titanic, is very good. I'm glad it's not a port from the Amstrad, so I don't have that sinking feeling, and it's also big enough to play for ages. Here you can just see the tip of the iceberg. Yes. It's cool and hard, and I hope I'm not going overboard when I say it deserves 88°. Cos it does. Great gags, eh?
    
FIVE TITANIC FACTS

    1. The Titanic weighed 46,329 tonnes. That's the equivalent of over 50 million bags of sugar, more than can put in all the cups of tea in Europe.
    2. The ship was said by its owners, White Start Line, to be unsinkable. So it didn't have enough lifeboats on board for all the passengers.
    3. So when it sank, only 700 could be saved. 1500 went down to Davy Jones' Locker.
    4. On the sea bed, the liner is broken into two large and heavily damaged pieces, to Titanic Blinky is pretty inaccurate in this respect.
    5. The Titanic, despite its name, wasn't made of titanium. If it had been, perhaps the iceberg would have bounced off.


Ratings given by other magazines
   CRASH  8/10    Sinclair User  7/10   
Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database


Life Expectancy
  
Graphics
  
Instant Appeal
  
Addictiveness
James Leach has kindly authorised this site
Reviews in other magazines:
     
 
Crash
 
Sinclair User
 
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