Game Review: Devil’s Crown (ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic)

All Aboard!

The game comprises of 40 rooms which are spread over three decks of a shipwreck.  These are the upper deck, quarter deck and lower deck.

The aim of the game is to break The Devil’s Curse by recovering the seven sapphires by swimming in the shipwreck and solving the puzzles.  You do this by picking up and using objects scattered around the various screens.

Devil’s Crown features a few dark rooms and without the shiny lantern, you won’t fully see the layout.  You can still move through them though, but it goes without saying it’s not too easy unless you know the layout!  Fortunately, unlike some other games, you don’t instantly lose a life just by entering a dark room.  No infuriating instant death syndrome here, I’m pleased to say.

Playability

Although the game moves around quite quickly, Devil’s Crown can take a while to settle into.  You only have one life, and it is quite easy to lose your oxygen very quickly and only get a few screens in without a bit of practice.

A simple thing, such as entering a door can sometimes be frustrating too.  You will find yourself entering a door and then moving straight back onto the screen you have just come from within a second or two!  This is because when you get on the next screen, the door exiting that room can be facing towards you, so you end up going back in.

Although moving around the screens is ok, it is a bit more awkward to shoot.  Fortunately, you can also fire diagonally too which is a slight help in some tighter spots.

The game at the beginning also starts on different screens too, bringing a bit of variety too.

Graphics and Animation

The graphics are colourful whilst the characters and objects looking well drawn too.

Unfortunately, the game does have its fair share of colour-clash.  When you move over enemies or objects, you will see a lot of flickering which can be a bit off-putting and distracting.  On the plus side though, because most of the screen is not in the gameplay area, it doesn’t cause any issues in those parts of the screen.

The animation is good and you can see this before you start the game.  Four frames of animation are very clear with bubbles rising upwards.

Sound Effects Only

Devil’s Crown has no music, and the only sound effects when was going in or out of a doorway.  Entering a door just makes a sound like a “Brr, Brr.” noise, shooting is a pitched beep sound.

When losing or collecting oxygen tanks, you will hear beeps.

Additional Keyboard Options

I did have some niggling issues with the controls.  Firstly, when using the keyboard, A and S for example are used for left and right respectively.  Accidently pressing Q by mistake (which is quite easy to do), instantly quits the game.  This is frustrating as it doesn’t ask you “Are you Sure and then give you the option for Yes or No”.

Pressing Enter is a good feature though to pause the game.  It’s very helpful in a game where you need to save your oxygen supply until you can resume playing it again.

The High Score Table

Although not something I’d usually write about in a review, I’ve decided to do a quick part here about it.

When you obtain a high score, you are prompted to (unsurprisingly) enter your name.  What is different here though, is that once you’ve entered your name, it will move up the table (a step at a time, whilst pushing the lower names downwards) until your name reaches the correct position on the table.  It gives a different concept on a hi-score table rather than place your name on the screen.

Final Thoughts

Devil’s Crown is an entertaining game but can take a while to get into the flow of playing at a decent level.  It is more of an arcade game than an adventure one.  Generally, it’s simply a matter of swimming around the rooms, whilst dodging the enemies and avoiding running out of oxygen with a bit of shooting too.

A bit like an adventure game though, you do have to think about how the objects you pick up come into play as well as where to put some of them.

On a separate note, I do like the artwork on the front cover of this game too.  The fish looking at the crown is rather amusing!

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