Hellhole Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
60Developed by Interactive and published by CRL in 1990.
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Set in a distant galaxy, mankind has colonised planets far beyond the reaches of Earth. One planet in particular contained creatures and environments so hostile that the planet was nicknamed Hellhole. Your scout craft has crash-landed in the middle of hostile territory and you must attempt to reach safety whilst dealing with the biological horrors that await.
I remember seeing some screenshots of Hellhole in a magazine many years ago and thinking it looked quite exciting. The mag staff were making a big thing about the load-out of weapons available and generally making it sound really promising.
Spend five minutes with Hellhole and you'll start to notice things that sure look familiar. The main sprite looks suspiciously similar to the Arnie sprite in the C64 version of Predator and you'll encounter numerous enemies that bear a resemblance to those in games such as Hawkeye and Rubicon. In fact, the humanoid enemies on the game's second level look suspiciously similar to the main character from Hawkeye...
Despite looking like a Hawkeye clone, the game is a traditional horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up; simply keep moving to the right and shoot anything that moves!
Waves of enemies appear from the right of the screen and you must either avoid them, or take them down using your arsenal of weaponry. Ammunition is limited, but it can be replenished by collecting the "A" tokens that certain enemies drop when killed. If you run out of ammo, your gun reverts back to the default starting weapon.
The game features a roster of increasingly powerful weapons that can be accessed by collecting one of the flashing gun tokens that appears at specific locations in each of the levels. Once collected, the game cycles through each of the available weapons until you press the fire button to select one. Curiously, the designers allow the player to select the most powerful weapon in the game right from the get go, which makes things considerably easier.
I was pleased to see that the game includes an energy bar system that allows you to take some punishment before losing a life, plus you'll also find first aid kits that completely heal you.
The only serious complaint I have with the game is the inability to move and fire simultaneously. Many of the levels have gaping holes in the floor that kill you if you fall into them and the game delights in sending waves of enemies at you just as you begin to jump across the gap. Naturally, you begin shooting to kill the oncoming foes and fall straight to your doom.
Despite bearing similarities to other games, the game features some decent graphics and sprite animation, although there's some ugly block clashes between the background layers in the third level.
The game features a singe tune (courtesy of Wally Beben) that plays during the main menu and is pretty catchy. The main game features sound effects only and even these are somewhat basic; the gun-fire effect can merely be described as a "swishing" sound and sounds rather silly.
With only four levels to beat, the game is pretty light on content. However, despite being pretty shallow, I didn't dislike it as much I thought I would (probably because the game is over before it has a chance to get boring...). It's not a classic by any means, but Hellhole may at least offer a few hours distraction on a rainy afternoon.
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