Thanatos

Copyright : Durell | Reviewed by : Bill

A not-so-well known game, Thanatos could had been a good game, but the Amstrad version was propably a Spectrum conversion thus making it a mediocre one. Nevertheless, it has an interesting theme and the Flying Dragon you control is still impressive.

Thanatos in Greek means "Death" although i couldn?t figure out why it was chosen as the game title. Perhaps it sounds strange enough to catch the possible buyer?s interest. In the game you control a big dragon, although ( if i remember correct) the main character is not really a dragon but a human cursed to be transformed into a dragon. Now, that?s a really strange curse indeed!

Your goal is to get rid of the spell that transformed you into your present form. In order to do that you will need the help of a witch. So you begin your quest to find the witch and then fly with her on your neck in the final castle where she will be able to remove the curse.

This is a horizontal scrolling game. The Dragon can walk,fly (in both directions) catch objects or persons with his claws (when flying in low level) and breath fire (of course!). On the low section of the screen you can see your score (redudant for this game), your heart on the left (health indicator) and the amount of fire you can breath on the right. The heartbeat you hear is an indication of your condition, as you get injured your pulses increase and if your heart beats too fast you die. In order to to reduce your heartbeat you just rest (stand still on the ground) until your pulses drop back to normal. Your breath fire weapon is effective but you must use it wisely because you may run out (although there is a way to "reload" it at least once).

Graphics

Graphics have this Spectrum-like look (mode 1) and the sprites are rather simple. The several levels of scrolling are worth noting though. But this make the game a bit slow and the game controls even slower. This is actually the biggest problem of the game, its unresponsive controls.

Sound

Sound consists of a few sound effects like your heartbeat, when you get hit etc. There is only a main-menu tune for music.

Gameplay

The gameplay is simple: Fly, avoid your enemies (humans that throw you spears, giant sea snakes, falling rocks in the caves you fly through, birds that attack you, giant bees, cave spiders etc), find the witch and fly to the last castle. When you find and take the witch with you, you must also protect her, because if she gets killed, the game ends. Some enemies that attack you, will cause her to fall and you must collect her again fast because enemies attack her also.

Gameplay is plagued by the control problem i mentioned earlier. This makes it a really hard game, even in the low difficulty mode. Although it is not very big, i spend many hours before i figure out what i had to do and complete it.