Your Sinclairs 100 Greatest Games - 47 Antics
9Antics was published by Bug-Byte Software Ltd in 1984
Created by Adrian Sherwin, Tim Lewis, Andrew Peckham
Antics, or The Birds and the Bee 2, was published from Bug-Byte Software in 1984 and was created by Adrian Sherwin, Tim Lewis, Andrew Peckham. This labyrinth-style game sees you searching for your cousin Boris within an ants nest, with numerous enemies and a dwindling stamina to keep your flying rationed, time is short as you hunt through this huge nest for you cousin. Along the way plants are found caked in pollen which aid you on your journey.
Though our title may seem a bit of an anti-climax after Renegade, it does actual have element of fun to it – the graphics are pleasant, the flying with a penalty of losing stamina is a nice feature and the game is a decent size. However Antics does have it problems too, there are areas of the maze that fade away to help you in your progress, but there is no indication which parts of the wall do this so you end up bumping into all walls, losing valuable stamina; when you do manage to break through a wall these gaps are just the right size for you bee and nothing more and on occasion it is extremely difficult to get your hero through the gap; lastly I couldn’t find Boris so I ended up making the game more about pollinating flowers than finding my cousin.
Though it’s no Renegade, Antics has its charms but I don’t think it should be higher than a number of other games in this Top 100 that we’ve passed by already.
Original review at Flickering Myth - http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2016/07/the-top-100-your-sinclair-zx-spectrum-games-47-antics/
Antics can be found on the World of Spectrum here - http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000537
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