Flintstones : The

Copyright : Grandslam | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

Yabba Dabba Doo - it?s the Weekend! Fred is looking forward to the final of the Bedrock Super Bowl contest the next day but Wilma reminds him of his promise to paint the living room before her Mother arrives. No painting, no bowling! Fred may not be much of a painter but Pebbles certainly is and when his back is turned she?s drawing all over the walls. So Fred?s task is not only to paint the wall before Wilma returns home but to keep Pebbles in her pen and to keep hold of that very elusive paintbrush!

The second game on the Amstrad to capture Bedrock?s favourite family.

Graphics

It has to be said first of all that the drawings of the Flintstone characters are very good and capture them all very well. All four that appear are easy to identify and are a credit to the game?s graphic designers. The animation is also very well done and the changing facial expressions of Fred depending on what is happening on screen are very good if a little basic in design. The intricacies of design are such that even the grains of sand in the egg timer are fun to watch.

Unfortunately though, the thing that will really grab the attention is the poor colours. With a better palette this game could have looked really close to the actual TV series, such is the quality of detail, but because of all the oranges, browns and yellows in the main levels, the game loses an awful lot of its shine.

The speed of the game is also a disappointment while the game is far from high octane in terms of its plot and what you have to do, it would still have helped to crank up the speed a little, particularly as although your tasks are mundane (for the most part) they are still all up against the clock.

Sound

Before the game starts we are treated to a good rendition of The Flintstones tune. After the game begins, a kind of slower version takes its place and plays throughout the game. It?s not too bad in the short term but unfortunately, as the game progresses, it soon becomes very irritating and along with the plodding graphics are enough to make you want to turn the game off. It?s a pity that a show that had an abundance of neat cartoony sounds in it doesn?t have any sound effects in its computer game but as I?ve said they?ve at least made an effort with the tune.

Gameplay

A mixed bag of different gaming styles, The Flintstones biggest failing is that you have to sit through two of the dullest to get to the two that are potentially more interesting and invariably you blow them before getting the chance to see how good they are or not.

The first level could easily and realistically be renamed Professional Paint Drying Simulator as it involves you as Fred painting a wall. I kid you not. You have to finish the wall before Wilma gets home and gasp watch out for Pebbles drawing on it! If you think that sounds interesting then there?s something deeply wrong with you and this is one of the strangest and most pointless sub games I?ve ever had to sit through. Putting this on first is a big mistake as a lot of people won?t delve any further.

This is probably the reason that the game allows you to practice parts 1 or 2, which means you can skip straight to level three. Unfortunately that?s a fairly poor bowling sim but it?s still more entertaining than the first level. The game will continue until you get a message that you have to go to the building site on level 4 unless Barney is beating you in which case you?ll need to play again?

Level 2 is a basic obstacle course where you have to jump over hazards in your car and is far from inspiring particularly as you have a tight time limit and every time you jump you go a little bit slower, running over debris on your back wheel will make it come off and you?ll waste even more time trying to put it back on. . The last level is a more straight forward platform game and is probably the most entertaining although due to the time constraint it can be a little difficult to achieve your goal of rescuing Pebbles until you know exactly how to get to her.

All in all the game is a little bit too easy to be a challenge and doubtless was aimed at the younger end of the spectrum. It?s hard to judge how difficult a kid would find this game (particularly considering most of them will be able to complete games like Doom and Resident Evil now?) but I remember at the time being far from impressed.

Another waste of a good licence, The Flintstones game actually manages to capture the characters quite well with put upon Fred?s best intentions going to pot and his love of bowling but the sub games themselves are not interesting enough to capture the imagination.

It?s certainly better than the other Flintstones game, Yabba Dabba Doo, but it still falls woefully short of what you would expect for the second longest running cartoon of all time.