Super Robin Hood

Copyright : Codemasters | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

The Sheriff of Nottingham has kidnapped Maid Marian and locked her in the East Tower. He will only release her when the outlaw Robin Hood surrenders to him. Gallantly, Robin sets out through Sherwood Forest to Nottingham Castle to free his love, oblivious to the inevitable dangers that lie before him. Once he has crossed the moat and entered the castle the game begins; he must fight his way past the guards and mediaeval animals protecting the castle. Only by fast reflexes and accurate manoeuvring do you stand a chance of rescuing Maid Marian.

Super Robin Hood picked up a Rave award in issue 18 of Amstrad Action.

Graphics

Accompanied by an excellent loading screen and a fabulous sidebar, Super Robin Hood is certainly well presented and a cut above most budget games at the time (the only trade off being an excruciating loading time for all you tape playing purists out there!)

When the game itself begins, you?ll notice that Robin himself is well animated and strides around the screen with a real sense of purpose, jumping and climbing ladders like a natural. The animation comes into its own though when Robin has to let off some arrows, a nice fluid motion accompanies the arrow being drawn from the sack on Robin?s back through to being fired from his bow. Try stopping for a short while too and you?ll see Robin look anxiously from side to side scoping out his surroundings, clearly uneasy at finding himself deep in Nottingham Castle. As in legend, when Robin dies he fires off an arrow into the air, presumably to be buried wherever it lands. A nice touch.

The background graphics, although detailed, can be a little garish and things can get quite ugly and confusing. Fortunately the Oliver Twins had the good sense to include an option that would switch off the background and make things a more comprehensible black. Although more basic looking, it does allow you to clearly make out where you are going without feeling as if your eyes are going to pop out of your head.

Sound

When compared with the majority of full price titles on release at the time, it can be hard to believe that Super Robin Hood was on sale for a fifth of their price upon loading the first thing you?ll hear is some digitised speech welcoming you to the game - although very tinny, it?s hard to find fault with the attempt to include speech, especially as this is not a lone incident and in fact the pockets are spread throughout the game each time you pick up one of the hearts. The menu is accompanied by a good tune that follows you into the game. Both speech and music can be turned off if they?re not your cup of tea and the music has a nice fade out effect both when the game starts and when you turn the music off.

The only drawback to the sound aspect of the game is the complete lack of sound effects, disappointing when so much effort has clearly been put into Super Robin Hood sounding superior to the other budget games in the market.

Gameplay

Scattered throughout Nottingham Castle are two types of object that Robin must collect to free Maid Marian, hearts used to break a witch?s enchantment (I think the instructions are a bit hazy on the whys and the wherefores) and keys each of which will start up a lift somewhere in the castle and make other areas accessible.

Making matters more difficult for you are a multitude of Nottingham?s finest archers who will fire upon you until you take them out with a well placed arrow of your own, not to mention the rats and giant spiders which will also happily feast on your energy supply but can?t be killed. Falls from any height will also sap at your energy, the further you fall the more energy is expelled although top-ups are littered within the castle in the form of tablets, each of which will repair your energy by up to 30 points but never beyond your base level of 99.

Thanks to a clever map that does require a little walking backwards and forwards, Nottingham Castle is quite fun to explore in itself and this in makes you want to come back and give it another go - there are no real fiendish puzzles to solve, everything can be overcome with a well timed jump and a little lateral thinking, although it can be immensely frustrating to get so far and see it all come undone by a mis-step, it?s the kind of frustration that makes you want to beat the game rather than chuck it out of a window.

The difficulty level is pitched just right so that each time you play, you?ll progress just that little bit further. The game is immediately involving and offers options as to the route you should take from the very first screen.

With a varied lay-out and even the simplest screens proving dangerous if you?re not paying attention, Super Robin Hood is a good challenge and one that will keep ardent platform fans happy.