Game Review: Kane (Amstrad, Mastertronic)

Kane, Amstrad, Mastertronic - IA0096
  • 9/10
    Score - 9/10
9/10

Summary

Mastertronic have delivered the goods again, and Kane puts many a full price game to shame. Looks great, sounds great, plays great. What more can I say? Get it!

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User Review
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The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Kane was originally coded for the C64 by John Darnell and ported to the CPC by Simon Freeman and the game sees you playing a cowboy during the time of the Wild West where you have to go to the town of Kane then stop a train.

The first level sees you at a Native American reservation where you have to use a bow and arrow to shoot down birds. For ever three you shoot down, you get a peace token which is also a life. You have a fixed amount of arrows, but whenever you shoot a bird down, you get your arrow back. When you run out of arrows, you move onto the next level.

The second level sees you on horse back, riding towards the town of Kane – you have to time jumps over buses and stuff just right. When you get the hang of this level, you can completed rather quickly.

Level 3 sees you in the town of Kane where you have to shoot a number of outlaws, who come out of hiding from windows, doors and behind buildings. You have a limited amount of ammunition and when you run out, you have to go to the right hand side of the screen to reload.

Once you deal with all the outlaws, you move the final level where you are on horse back again and have to jump over rocks and plants to get to the train engine so you can stop it. This is the hardest level of the game and I’ve never got to the end of this.

For A Few Dollars More

The presentation of the game is very good, made in the CPC’s 16 colour mode. For loading, you get a very good loading screen with your character and a native American. Clever split mode techniques are used to present the score and related displays in the MODE 1 setting. The main thing that stands out in this game is the extremely smooth animation on the main spite, which reminds me of Impossible Mission and Ghost Hunters. Each level is extremely colourful and very well designed.

However, the birds and the outlaws in levels 1 and 3 are simple graphics, although the birds are very well animated. Speed is consistently good and the level 2 and 4 scrolling is very smooth and well done for a CPC budget title.

Kane also features a great musical soundtrack based around the William Tell Overture which is well done. While this mainly plays on the title screen, it also plays during level 2 gameplay.

A Town Called Kane

The game has a reasonable difficulty level. On level 1 when shooting the birds, you get a crosshairs curser, but the trick is working out where to place it that isn’t touching the birds to shoot them down. It’s a matter of angles and direction – the further left and upwards you fire, the arrows are slower. Sometimes, two bird sprites are together (and you won’t realise it), so when you shoot one, you shoot both of them, adding two to your total and if you’re even luckier, when you shoot one bird and another is in the angle of descent, it will take the second bird down with you.

The first horse riding level has a tricky start – you go slow towards the first bush and need to jump in time, which then enables you to build up speed. This is a rather short level but you still have to rely on pixel perfection to make it through without losing a life.

Level 3 had you doing the shoot-out. You can be hit a few times before you lose a life, but all you need to do is keep an eye open for the nearest one to you and aim your crosshair at the outlaw and open fire. You’re given six bullets to start with and when you run out, you run to the far end to reload. After you shoot twelve outlaws, you move onto the last and most difficult level in the game.

Level 4 sees you back on horseback and sees you chasing a train to get to the engine to force it to stop. But like level 2, you have to jump over plants and bushes, but this is a lot trickier. This time, you have to approach them at various speeds as because as soon as you land following a jump, you might have to jump again straight away. It’s a question of memory. As soon as you finish this level, the game loops back you go back to shooting down birds, but at a higher difficulty level.

A nice touch is that there is a practice mode which gives you one life to practice at anyone of the levels. This is especially useful for the last level which gives you a chance to learn the jumping patterns.

The Great Train Robbery

For a £1.99 Mastertronic game, Kane is very well produced. The stand out parts of the game is the silky smooth animation but the gameplay is very good and the difficulty is very reasonable. If you’ve never played, find a copy and play it now! It’s just a pity Kane 2 was C64 only however.

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