Blimey! This French game Mystical's been getting its fair share of coverage in YS, hasn't it, Spec-chums? There was the Future Shock in May, then the demo the month after - and all because Linda saw that episode of The Darling Buds Of May when they all went off to France! No, it's true!

First she started eating lots of croissants. And then she'd wander around the shed throwing her arms up and shouting "Sacre bleu!" for no reason at all. And finally she said if we didn't put more Froggy stuff in the mag then she'd blow garlic breath in our faces (which would have been really, really horrible because of all the crumbs that'd sort shoot out of her mouth at the same time. Eurgh!!).

So naturally we complied. And tried to find lots of French games to fill the mag up with, and failed abysmally, and only found one, so here it is (again).

You probably know the plot backwards by now. You play a sorcerer's apprentice who's ruined all his boss's spells and potions, and has to go out into the big wide world to try and replace them. It all measures up to a bird's-eye vertical-scrolling shoot-'em-up (a la Ikari Warriors) with you plodding along merrily, looking like Kojak dressed up in a habit, and picking up all the nasty litter and empty bottles that people have left behind on their picnics. And it's a jolly lucky thing they did, otherwise you'd never have any spells to shoot all the nasties with. They come at you from the top of the screen down (it's a bit like going the wrong way at rush hour), and you can use either the last spell you picked up (of which more in the box-off) or alternatively one from the stock that you've been saving up. And that's it.


And it's all so pwetty!

The novelty of Mystical isn't the gameplay - it's how the thing's presented. And coming from the French, it's no surprise that it's all pretty original (and funny). The baddies are colourful - like the little brattish schoolgirls, and nightgowns with funny faces (which are sort of pathetically trying to be ghosts!) - and the spells and potions throw up some pretty natty ways of wasting your enemy, or just stopping them dead in their tracks. There are trees that spring up to block the path, ways of turning your adversaries into frogs (!) or charred skeletons (with a very surprised look on their faces!) and a few other little tricks besides. It's all a bit of a giggle.

Of course, none of this would work if the graphics wore crap, and, er, they aren't. Although they're just in plain green, the sprites are clearly designed and jog up and down the screen very nicely, and the playing area scrolls by with the minimum of stop/start jumpiness.

The trouble is that glitzy graphics and a good line in humour are fine, but only if you've got the gameplay to back them up - and Mystical hasn't. This is the kind of game you'll get some fun out of for an hour or so, and then start to nod off. Not that shooting baddies is boring, far from it. It's just that, in order to make a good game, baddies have got to come at you at the right speed and regularity, and there need to be a few hidden things along the way to surprise you, and things like that. Here it's all too straightforward and mechanical. (The two-player option's get quite a nice twist - the second character isn't just a duplicate of you, but a big Hulk-like muscleman who jumps about - but, again, the novelty looks as though it'd soon wear off.)


Abracadabra!

One way they've obviously tried to give it a bit of depth is by including an option to save spells. But once you've mastered how to juggle between the joystick and keyboard to store and use them, you pretty soon wonder what the point is. The trouble is that the baddies simply aren't different enough to warrant so many dozens of ways of killing them. If they all walked at different speeds (or some of them flew, or threw lots of different firebolts at you or whatever) then I could understand it. But as it stands, any attempt at strategic thought just flies out of the window. Ho hum.

And that's not all. Because finally (no, honest - it really is my last point!) it's also one of those annoying games where you gradually die by losing your energy, which I really hate. It means you can bump into baddies all the time and you don't give a fig until suddenly you keel over and die. Grrr! (But that's not really a criticism of the game, so I'd better shut up, eh?)

So - quite a list of grumbles there, eh? But don't let that shed too much of a black shadow over it! It's certainly far from crap (we're talking a 70°s game here, not a 50°s one). It's just a shame it hasn't get enough meat, because it could have been a corker. Infogrames are like a sort of French version of Gremlin - solid, original, and enthusiastic about the full-price Speccy market in a way that is, bit by bit, fading out of fashion. Mystical might not be up there with the likes of Sim City but it's still got the kind of cockiness and quality to make it interesting enough to have a go at, if not perhaps to pick up and buy.

Andy Ide


RATING

Life Expectancy: 69º
Graphics: 85º
Instant Appeal: 82º
Addictiveness: 66º
OVERALL: 74º

Infogrames confía de nuevo en New Frontier para llevar al Spectrum una comedia mágica con guión de marcianos.

Y se hizo la luz. Y cuando estabas a punto de recibir el título de licenciado en brujería, cometiste el error de pillar al maestro "infraganti" con una chica en paños adúlteros, acurrucados en la habitación. Y se hizo la oscuridad. Y el maestro se enfadó tanto que comenzó a repartir golpes a diestro y siniestro, y en una de ésas tiró al suelo el contenido del cuenco donde estaba preparano un poderoso conjuro. Más preocupado por no fomentar el escándalo que por las consecuencias de su mal humor, el brujo padre no se dio cuenta de que todo lo que le rodeaba perdía la forma y el color, giraba bruscamente y se dispersaba por fin a todo lo largo de los espacios intergalácticos.

La reflexión pertinente dio ventaja a la obtención del título de brujo sobre los millones que varias revistas te ofrecerían gustosos por el escabroso asunto. Así que, orejas agachadas, mea culpa, y a localizar todos los objetos perdidos por esos mundos de Dios y San Pedro.

A partir de estahistoria, Infogrames se monta un arcade a la usanza "Commando" o "Xenon" en el que la permuta de naves por revoltosos novicios no basta para que nos desprendamos de la idea de siempre. Mystical opta por la vía de la variedad dentro de lo ya existente, es decir, por originalizar un masacrado tipo de juegos, incluyendo nuevos y graciosos personajes, hechizos innumerables y detalles más creativos que técnicos.

Inexplicablemente, el programa desarrollado por New Frontier no desprende ni agresividad ni violencia. Creo que es el primer arcade de matar que no lo hace. Muy al contrario, es agradable y marchoso, limpio y divertido, tratado con un gran sentido del humor que inspira tanto a nuestro personaje como a unos enemigos con los que no da pena luchar.

Es por todas estas razones que nos vamos dando cuenta de que Mystical es un arcade de siempre pero muy pensado. Para ello Infogrames se ha volcado sobre todo en la realización gráfica, dominada por la alegría y el desparpajo de toda clase de personas y objetos.

No obstante, aunque la labor de programación sea encomiable -scroll suave, movimientos rápidos-, el programa queda muy soso a la vista. No sólo el fondo monocromo que se ha impuesto, sino la carencia de decorados, o mejor dicho la simpleza del conjunto total, evidencian que: ¿no se podía hacer más?, ¿era ese el propósito inicial?

Divertido, fácil y muy trabajado a nivel creativo, Mystical podía haber sido mucho más que lo que tenéis delante. Un arcade de disparos con un novicio a la última. Recomendado para incondicionales del género, amantes de la variedad.

NOTAS

GRÁFICOS 79%
MOVIMIENTO 80%
SONIDO 80%
ADICCIÓN 65%

TOTAL 70%