Tusker Longplay (C64) [QHD]
122Game Info
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Developer: System 3
Publisher: System 3
Year of Release: 1989
Game Review & Impressions
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Tusker is one of the few C64 games developed by System 3 I never owned or played back in the day. It looked quite interesting in screenshots, not least because of the impressive artwork, but the main character always bore a resemblance to a certain Indiana Jones, which can only be a good thing.
You are the son of a famous adventurer, who journeyed through Africa in search of the fabled Elephant's Graveyard. Your father died in his attempts, so you take it upon yourself to pick up where your father left off, seeking the trove of ancient ivory rumoured to be found there. It might be considered poor taste these days to be making a fast buck from the ivory of dead elephants, but that's the plot, so proceed you must.
What ensues is a flick-screen hunt-and-seek adventure game with combat and puzzle elements. You must wander the various screens, collecting weapons and items, and figuring out where they need to be used. It's typical System 3 territory because, as usual, the items aren't always obvious as to what they are, nor where they need to be used. Some items, such as chests, need to be punched in a specific spot in order to open them, and exactly where you need to stand to do this isn't always apparent either.
All this adventuring will prove to be thirsty work, and so an added complication presents itself in the form of your adventurer's thirst. The blue bottle to the top right of the screen shows the amount of water remaining in your canteen and, should it run dry, you'll lose a life. There's usually a specific means to refill it on each level, but it's not always obvious. Despite there being an underground lake on level 1, you're forced to find and stab cacti with the knife in order to replenish your supply. It does make sense, after a fashion, but it would have been so much easier just to let the player tank up at locations where there's clearly water in abundant supply.
As mentioned earlier, you'll encounter various enemies throughout each of the levels who'll try and prevent you from progressing. he game features a variety of weapons with which you can deal with them, although the knife you find on level 1 makes most of these redundant because it not only kills bad guys in a single hit when thrown, but can be used in one hand. By comparison, the gun requires you to also have bullets active in your item slot in order to fire the stupid thing. Cycling through items means you can't fire when the bullets are deselected, which makes it utterly pointless.
I guess it should come as no that this is a classic System 3 game: extremely polished, great music, but lumbered with some uninspiring combat, and puzzles which just don't make a whole lot of sense.
Chapters
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00:00 Intro music
05:42 Stage 1 - The Desert
10:48 Stage 2 - The Village
14:46 Stage 3 - The Temple
19:10 Bonus: Death animations