Game Review: Video Meanies (Commodore 16 and Plus/4, Mastertronic)

Video Meanies has you starring as a robot working in a video shop.  The shop is owned by a millionaire, and he lives in a castle full of meanies.  You need to turn off all the videos that His Lordship leaves on, whilst avoiding the meanies along the way.  Interestingly, the inlay screen shots for the game clearly show the game originally being called Video Nasty, but I suspect seeing as there was still controversy around certain films (called “video nasties”) being distributed on video, uncensored, and falling foul to the National Viewers and Listeners’ Association in the UK, it was sensible to ensure that the name was changed.

Oh, Have We Got a Video?

The title screen is a nice attract mode showing you a number of the twenty-four screens to make your way through, along with a catchy little title theme.  It shows you that in each screen, there is a video screen which you will need to touch to turn off, as well as the meanies which can bounce around the screen, often diagonally, at your robot.  You can also see in some cases that there are lasers which you must time your run past, as well as invisible walls to work a way through.  Pressing F1 then gives you the option of joystick or keyboard, and away you go.

I Fell in Love with My Video Nasty

Once you get started, you can see the first screen is relatively straight forward – shoot or dodge the meanies with their diagonal movements, break through the permeable walls by firing through them, and as well as the video screen to turn off, there is also a key to obtain.  This key allows you to open more of the game, as certain keys will open certain doors or passages which are blocked.  Normally these blockages are shown like a pawn chess piece, so it is relatively easy to spot which parts are blocked before having the right key automatically opens them up.

You can then move to an exit where available to go into the next screen, and from here you have several ways you can go, and that does open things well – a very sensible design decision made here.  You will notice some screens have lasers which you need to time your run past to avoid being zapped, some have a multitude of meanies moving diagonally to shoot or dodge, and some have sections only opened when shooting through the permeable walls (which thankfully are nice and easy to spot.)

White Walls of Woe

Amongst your greatest foes are screens with the white walls, which are easy to spot – the whole screen background which shows various rocks as its border, are white.  The white walls are lethal to the touch and doing so will lose one of your seven lives – and there are no extras either.  You can also lose lives by running into a laser, hitting a meanie, or running out of energy, so you need to have your wits about you.  The white wall screens can often have some lasers which you also need to dodge past, so you can sometimes overshoot those, hit a white wall, and yes, lose a life without realising.

Drone and Done

On screens where you have not yet turned off the video screen, you will hear a low droning noise in the background to indicate that the screen is on.  Once you turn this off, for that screen the noise stops, the video wall at the top left shows another piece of the puzzle completed, and you can concentrate more on the movement of the meanies.  It is worth noting that whatever energy you have left when you turn a screen off is added to your score, but if you do have to traverse multiple screens to retrace your steps, that energy does go down a fair bit, so sometimes you may be best waiting to turn the screen off until you need to – or you can just go all out for a big score turning multiple screens off early on.

Yes, We Have Got a Video

The twenty-four screens are a sizeable challenge, especially for those ones with the white walls, but you do feel as if you get further each time.  Working out a sensible route which allows you to pick up the keys to open more of the screens is a good idea as this minimises back tracking too far to get to where you need to be, and the meanies do move at a good pace to keep you on your toes.  It can be a little too easy to lose your lives on the white walls if you are not careful, but the rewards when you turn the screens off and increase your score really do help.   Also, when you re-enter a screen or when you lose a life, that screen resets back to its default, which can be quite useful for keeping meanies trapped away.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Video Meanies are well defined with the screens having distinct rock patterns for its borders, the robot well defined as a 2×1 character, and the meanies move well as do the lasers.  There is a nice effect as you shoot the permeable walls too.  The sound is good too – a good little title theme, and some meaty sound effects including an explosion when you lose a life, and that drone to indicate the screen is on in a room really helps you map the game out and keep an eye and ear on the enemies.

Final Thoughts

Video Meanies works well as an arcade maze game with keys to find, screens to turn off, and meanies to shoot or dodge as you need to. The freedom of movement as the game opens stops the game being linear, and you do have to have your wits about you to avoid the meanies.  The white walls really do offer a different challenge on certain screens, where accuracy of movement is key to ensuring you do not lose your precious lives.  It can be a little frustrating sometimes but overall, it is a solid and very enjoyable release from Tony Kelly, and a real shame it was his last Mastertronic game for this system. 

The Commodore 64 version of Video Meanies does have different gameplay mechanics and graphical style – so much so, in fact, that there was a homebrew version of the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 version of Video Meanies released for the Commodore 64 years later, keeping the original version’s graphical style and layout.  It is well worth checking out to see how the game could have been on the other format had the game design been kept the same too.

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