Hudson Hawk Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
77Developed by Special FX and published by Ocean in 1991
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It would seem that some people are never satisfied. Despite being considerably rich already, multi-millionaires Darwin and Minerva Mayflower have discovered that, when combined, various artefacts left behind by the famous Renaissance polymath, Leonardo da Vinci, unlock the secrets of alchemy, allowing lead to be converted to gold.
Unfortunately for the the Mayflowers, each item is held in a secure location and they need the skills of an expert thief to succeed. Having been freshly released from prison and intending to go straight, Hudson Hawk is a man with such skills and is blackmailed into cooperating.
The game itself is a platform affair that sees the player take control of a surprisingly diminutive version of Bruce Willis' character across three multi-screen levels in order to reclaim each of da Vinci's artefacts.
As one might expect for high-security museums and facilities, each level boasts a considerable number of environmental hazards, including lasers, pressure plates, flame jets and even thrusting spears! Most of these are deadly and will kill you on contact, so precision jumping and good timing are of the essence.
In addition to the security traps, each level contains a host of enemies on the prowl, looking to take down the Hawk at any cost. Hawk can deal with most enemies by hurling a number of baseballs in their direction, or by getting close enough to hit them with a punch; some enemies must be stunned with the ball AND punched to defeat them, but it isn't always apparent which enemies require this and some are completely invincible.
Dotted around each level are a number of gold coins that can be collected. I assume that the point of the coins is to accrue bonus points, but without any on-screen score counter it's difficult to tell exactly what effect collecting the coins is having. I noticed that if you leave and return to particular screen then the coins always respawn, even if you've always collected them and seems something of an oversight.
The biggest bugbear I have with the game is the over-fiddly jumping mechanics. Increasing jump distance requires that you take a run-up, but so many of the jumps place you on tiny platforms so that gaining the necessary speed is impossible to achieve without falling off the platform that you're currently on. The game also suffers from a problem common to so many platform games in that you fall off the edges of platforms once you cross an invisible threshold; it doesn't matter you blatantly pressed jump whilst still on the platform, the bottom line is that you were over the threshold and you are doomed to fall over the edge.
The game's audio is nothing special, which is disappointing considering that many other Special FX titles feature great soundtracks. Keith Tinman produced a catchy tune for the title screen and the between-level interlude graphics, but the main game limits you to (very basic) sound effects or complete silence only.
The game's graphics, fortunately, are pretty decent and everything looks very polished. The tiny size of Hawk compared to the over-sized enemy sprites lends the game a somewhat quirky and cartoon-ish feel, something not out of place considering that the film is meant to be a comedy.
Although not what I'd consider a classic, fans of platform games will find enjoyment here since the game is still a relatively solid effort despite the fiddly jumping mechanics.
If you'd spent £10 on this back in the day then you wouldn't come away feeling short-changed, a stark contrast to how you'd feel had you paid to see the film on which it's based.
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