Game:

Ice Palace (1985)

Category:

Review

Duration: 1:04:55

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INTRODUCTION (From mojontwins.com):

Sir Ababol had settled in the lands of Belchite, and spent his days growing borage. One day he witnessed unequivocal omens in the sky. Three rooks hovered upon his head describing concentric circles – then Sir Ababol remembered the wise words of the ancient wise man: “When the rook flyes low, goosebumps you’ll grow!”. Of course! That’s why his nose was full of snot. It was, literally, freezing. The rooks were, in fact, messengers.

They came from the lands of Freezia, province of Badajoz. Sent by king Yoghourteric, they were a desperate attempt to ask Sir Ababol for help. So he went back home, packed his goods and jumped on his horse, Anastasio, even when he didn’t have the slightest idea of what really happened. On his way, he stopped at Medinaceli to have a cup of chicory-latte and checked Minstrelbook, the mid ages social network, where he learned about 8 young princes and princesses being held prisoners in six towers in Fridgeland.

After three days of riding across Badajoz he arrived to the entrance of the woods, where a mistress covered in warts told him what was really happenning: the evil alchemist-druid Alastor de la Babucha, duke of Freezia and marquis of Fridgeland had challenged King Yoghourteric to a game of gañote – a task for which he needed to gather as much knowledge as he could fit into his brains. To obtain it, he had invented a device which extracted knowledge from “princely juice”.

Such extraction of “princely juice” turned every young prince in Freezia and Fridgeland into ugly bats. Upon sight, Sir Ababol only could exclaim “behj, air rats!”

GAMEPLAY (From mojontwins.com):

Control Sir Ababol climbing the six towers of Freezia to face and fight the princes and princesses turned bats so you can finally destroy the evil Alastor. Sir Ababol can run and jump, but also use his sword, which can strike in any direction.

When hit with the sword, baddies will freeze and blocks of ice or glass will shatter. Some ice blocks may contain coins or extra lives, so it’s a good idea to break as much stuff as possible.

At the top of each tower you will face one or maybe two bats. To take them down and turn them again into princes or princesses you must hit them three times with your sword.

After every tower you can visit the shop to buy a password or extra lives.

REVIEW:

While Sir Ababol 1 also was made for NES and C64 and the ZX Spectrum version looked like being a quick port with no in-game music (though the other versions had music) and a lot of color clash, Sir Ababol 2 is made exclusively for the ZX Spectrum, and this is a much, much better game.

You control Sir Ababol and you have to make your way through six towers to find and free eight princesses and defeat the evil Alastor. The gameplay is a mix between Rainbow Islands and Wonder Boy in Monsterland. You have a sword as your weapon, and you start at the bottom and have to work your way up to the top op each tower, where you will have to fight against the princesses that are turned into bats. You will need to find and use some keys to proceed, and sometimes these are placed so you will have to climb up one way to get a key, climb down again, and climb up another way to proceed. You can use your sword to destroy ice blocks that may contain coins and extra lives. The sword can not kill enemies but it can stun them for a while. The coins can be used in a shop, at the end of each level, where you can buy extra lives or passwords.

This is a very good and highly playable platform game. There is a lot of music in this game – including a new soundtrack for each level. The sound fx are nice and the controls of Sir Ababol is working well. There is an intro sequence, end of game sequence, six huge levels and boss fights. The game is not totally free of color clash, but it is not very much, and it do not ruin anything. Some nice effects have been made like if one of the monsters touches you and you die, then you will find your self frozen in a block of ice and you will have to push fire rapidly to stab your way out. There is also a nice slow down and skating effect when walking on ice. The game takes about the same time to complete as Rainbow Islands and Wonder Boy in Monsterland, and this game is better looking than the totally color clashing Rainbow Islands or the monochrome Wonder Boy in Monsterland.

A few minuses prevent the game from getting top score: The use of the color red on ladders and pillars in level 6 was not a good idea because of the color clash. The boss fights is always against the same bat, and you do not get to fight Alastor de la Babucha – you only see him getting defeated in the end of game sequenze.

If I had to review this game for Your Sinclair I would give it 92%.