Psycho Shopper, Vic 20, Mastertronic - IV0031
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Score - 6.5/106.5/10
Summary
Despite the strange plot, Psycho Shopper manages to deliver a fun and challenging game for the Vic 20 and justifies its need for the 8k memory expansion. It’s a novel twist on the Frogger concept, with a few extra ideas thrown in for good measure and manages to provide enough gameplay for you to want keep returning to try to beat it.
User Review
( votes)Whoever thought going to the shops could be so dangerous? Well Mastertronic obviously did when they released Psycho Shopper for the Vic 20. This strange release for expanded machines takes an everyday chore into a life-and-death challenge…
Meet Arthur, The Psycho Shopper
Arthur is the hapless hero of the game, although describing him as a psycho shopper is somewhat misleading as is the game’s title completely. You have to guide Arthur on a perilous journey to the local supermarket through a series of levels collecting cash along the way, avoiding lethal grannies(!), until you finally get to the store. Once there, grab everything you need, head to the checkout and it’s back to the beginning on the next difficulty level.
Each of the four stages has a slightly different variation on the same basic game mechanic. The first puts you on a pedestrian crossing on a busy road, with you needing to cross two busy sections, collecting coins along the way before reaching the exit. As with further levels, you can’t move on until you’ve collected every coin. You lose a life if you collide with Gladys the granny or any of the traffic so it’s all a matter of timing.
Hop To It
The second stage will be familiar to most gamers as it’s based on Konami’s arcade classic Frogger. Again there are coins to collect and another appearance from Gladys, but with three rows of cars and trucks on each section of the road it’s harder than it looks. Each moves at a different speed and with coins either side of the level you’ll need to go forwards and back down to the start of the road this time to collect everything!
Ridin’ On The Tracks
If you thought the roads were tricky, Psycho Shopper’s third level is even harder. This time Gladys has brought her friends with her! We might have been taught at school about staying away from train tracks but that’s exactly what this stage is all about and it’s one of the toughest in the game and makes the second feel like a walk in the park.
As before, it’s all about timing but because the trains are coming from the very edge of the screen – which is where all the coins are located – you can’t sit and wait there hoping to move up between tracks safely so getting through this is a combination of learning the patterns and quick reactions.
Hide And Seek
One thing you’ll learn early on when playing Psycho Shopper is that every stage has safe areas where you can go and the grannies (and vehicles) can’t get you. Finding and making use of these safe spaces is essential if you want to get anywhere in the game. To start off with, frustration sets in with Psycho Shopper until you find out where each safe spot is, and then the game becomes a lot more enjoyable and challenging rather than fraught with rapid loss of life every time you try to move anywhere.
Presentation
There’s plenty of variety when it comes to the visuals in Psycho Shopper and the developer has made good use of the extra 8k available as this is the first of Mastertronic’s games to require a memory expansion for the Vic 20. While there isn’t a great deal of character animation, everything moves quickly and smoothly enough, and it’s good to see larger software sprites in use throughout.
Sound is used well too with some good sound effects and while it doesn’t push the machine in any way, it works well enough for the game without making you want to reach for the volume on your TV!
Overall
Psycho Shopper is a fun little game offering plenty of variety and challenge throughout all the levels and it does have that all-important “one more go” factor to keep you coming back as you manage to make progress through it. With five difficulty settings it’s got a degree of replayability once you do manage to complete it, and while it’s not Mastertronic’s best outing for the Vic 20, it was certainly worth the original asking price.
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I was lucky enough to own a 16K RAM pack for my VIC when this game came out, had a lot of fun with it, Frogger was one of my favourite games(Atari 2600) and this is one of the best expansions on that theme I have played, still have my copy today and still play it!