Kwik Snax Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
56Developed by Jason Benham and published by Codemasters in 1990.
Dizzy was the closest thing to a mascot that the C64 (and 8-bit computers in general) received, if an egg with boxing gloves can be considered such a thing. Kwik Snax is a great little arcade game starring the eggy one as he must navigate his way through a succession of maze-like levels in the dreaded castle vulture.
On each level, Dizzy must round up and save a number of creatures, known as fluffles. These creatures start off each round as an egg and hatch out as the level progresses; this process can be sped up by walking over the eggs, but it will scatter them in random directions, so there can be a bit of strategy in working out whether it's safer to let them hatch as opposed to sending them flying into the middle of a group of enemies.
Walking over the fluffles will cause them to start following Dizzy and he must then take back to a trap-door located in the level, whereup they will escape, each one racking up a number of points and bonus points can be accrued by saving more fluffles at once. However, if a monster makes contact with the fluffles following you, it will scatter them all over the place, losing you time as you have to round them all up again, so there's definitely a risk versus reward element to this. To confound things, there is a time-limit on each level (although there's no visible timer on-screen) and a winged monster will start to home in on Dizzy if you take too long.
Dizzy has a range of weapons at his disposal ranging from bombs to fireballs (probably the most useful). There is a mini-game at the start of each round where you have to win weapons for the round; if you're unlucky, you'll come away empty-handed, which makes things tougher, although you can pick up weapons within the level as well.
Once each floor of the castle has been cleared, you get to play a simple but amazingly addictive bonus game where Dizzy must catch all manner of fruit and food items (Snax reference) in hist net before it lands in the castle's shark-infested moat. You must save the falling Dizzy eggs in your net and must avoid catching any bombs; if you fail in either of these then the round is over.
Graphically, the game is functional if unspectacular and there is a single piece of music playing throughout (a jolly 8-bit version of Scott Joplin's "The Ragtime Dance" piano rag). The real attraction here is the gameplay, which is great!
Of interest is the fact that the C64 version of Kwik Snax is completely different to all the versions on the other 8-bit computers of the time, even though it retained the same name. In my opinion, this was definitely the best version.
For £2.99, this game represented fantastic value for money and one of my favourites on the system.
#retrogaming