Apprentice (Amiga) - A Playguide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com
51Apprentice is a platform puzzle adventure, released by Rainbow Arts in 1990. This was one of the first games I ever saw on the Amiga, and gameplay-wise it's very easy to get into. This is an old request so lets give this one a spin and see how far it runs.
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Production Notes:
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Captured: 6th December 2020 (@60fps)
Narrated: 27th July 2021
Edited: 24th July 2021 - 21st Oct 2021
V6 - Handbrake 60fps (replaced after 620 views)
Once again, due to a bug with the video FPS, this guide had to be released at 50fps. This makes the scrolling a bit less smooth, but hopefully not too much of a distraction.
This review came from an old request I found from a screenshot I made of my comments section in 2013. I looked at this before recording this 6th series and decided it would be great to finally cover the game. With rose tinted spex on, I can still remember the smell of the machine, the clunk-click of the disks, the LEDs, the digital audio. For the time I thought the graphics were great, and a lot better than Bounty Bob or Thundercats on the C64. It was made all the sweeter by the fact that my friend and I were playing a cracked version, which opened up a whole new door of possibility - if only I could get my hands on the machine! I went home and visited my friend to play on his computer most Sundays, and within a couple of weeks I was hooked. Since then I cannot break the habit, as each month I find a new game or genre to explore. My Doctor says I should quit while I still have a chance to beat this slippery slope, but there is no hope left for me now. I'm doomed to avoid modern PC Doom clones, and that's absolutely no shame.
I played this cold after so many years away, with one quick test run; where I pressed the space bar to make sure the Mini-Me still worked. I then recorded the game from the start and had just one go. There is definitely a safe way to tackle most scenarios, but I didnt take much time, as the game is quite long. In the end I reached my usual spot inside the castle, having failed to find the switch to remove the spikes; otherwise its a 'no-way-back' situation.
During the edit, I notice The Sorcerers Apprentice shared some similar themes, and so I put that picture into a quiet space in the video. I also said that an Amstrad CPC version was available; but it wasnt - this was 16 bit only. I cant remember if I chopped that bit out but I think I probably did. I also said the levels have a time limit, which they dont, so again this is probably out of the narration.
Danscore:
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Why do people like Manic Miner and Atic Atac? It's not because of the music, or the graphics, or even the presentation, the story, or the cinematic 3D rendered cut scenes - because they didnt have any. Instead a game had to rely on tight controls and good playability, and those are what make good games stand out. 1990 was the dawn of great graphics on the Amiga, and this provides the missing link between Flashback and Ruff N Tumble, and the Turrican 1 style of simple block mapping levels. The difficulty curve starts off easy, and gradually introduces more things with each level, so that the player is ready for later traps and exploration. Looking back, the graphics arn't so great, and the music is a shadow of Chris Hulsbeck's greater works. But to me they have charm. The levels start small but end up being sprawling - with many doors to open secret places, and turns this game from a simple Left to Right platformer like Wonderboy, to something like The New Zealand Story. However, comparing this to Rainbow Islands or The New Zealand Story makes Apprentice look even worse! - as this games are far superior and feel far less of a drawn out slog. So I'll draw the line here and give is 6.5. A good game for those who used to play it, but an average game in general.
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