Game Review: Flash Gordon (ZX Spectrum, Mastertronic)

Time and Respawning – The Jungle

As mentioned, Flash Gordon has twenty-four hours to save the world.  Now what I like about the game is that you see the hours and minutes ticking down.  So instead of lives, you lose time if you make a mistake.  Don’t make many mistakes, and you’re in for a good shot of completing the game.  Falling down ravines seemed to do the most damage with four hours lost each time.  Very occasionally, you can run into a screen and must stop or run into a spider, so you’d need to stop pretty much straight away upon entering the new screen in the jungle section.

In the jungle, you’ll come across bears, spiders, skeletons with spears and a dragon to name but a few. Collision with an enemy or something they throw at you, does cost a lower time penalty.  The good thing about the respawning is that unlike some games, the enemies disappear from the screen so there is none of the reappearing where an enemy could be and losing any unnecessary time.  Also, it gives you an opportunity to progress even if you messed it up.  Re-entering the screen again, does reset the screen to back how it was with the enemies in place once again.  With the ravines, they are the longest jump to do so you need to hold down the direction and fire button as close as possible.

Although there is a map and compass on the lower left-part of the screen, it is rather a tough to know where you are.  Facing to walk up down a path can then lead you to the side of a screen which is a bit confusing (so one for people who like to draw maps or have a good memory!)  Otherwise, you’ll seriously just get in a massive muddle and go around in circles.  The screens are pretty much the same but the sky changes colour.

The Cave Dwelling of Prince Barin

After the jungle section of the game, you arrive at this part of the game.  It is a fight between Flash Gordon and Prince Barin in a yellow cave (with both characters also yellow).

Unfortunately, the controls are very extremely unresponsive and extremely difficult to strike Prince Barin.  Even the computer misses a lot and just tends most of the time to somersault. One move that looked pretty good though was the crouch down and kick backwards.  It still wasn’t effective but at least it looks good!

What I do think was very impressive though is the tug-of-war at the bottom which acts as a strength meter.  Each time one of you gets hit, you pull your opponent further across to your side of the screen. The challenge on this level is therefore its lack of playability in my view.

Jet Bike (stage 3)

The final part of the game is by far and away the Jet Bike section.  The saying “Save the Best for Last” definitively applies to Flash Gordon.

The controls work perfectly, and it moves at a fair pace too and therefore much more enjoyable to play.  The best way to describe it is a good Space Harrier clone and well done at that.  Ming plays the final enemy to shoot down.

Music, Sound Effects and Graphics

Although there is no music on the very front screen (where you choose either a joystick or keyboard), there is a very good tune afterwards with very good drawing of Flash Gordon.  The music is worth a listen to and lasts for a couple of minutes before repeating itself.

There are some sound effects but they are beeps for reloading your weapon (at the golden chests scattered around the jungle), high pitch sounds which sound like they are going down a few octaves when you fall down a ravine and a beeping type noise if you walk into or get hit by an enemy.

(Not such a) Mega-Load

The Loading Screen for the game is very good indeed with the evil Ming on the left-hand side and Flash Gordon on the right-hand side.  I have to say that it is impressive.  At the bottom of the loading screen though, there are two errors. It shows Mastertronic, but this is a M.A.D. release. and the word programmed is slightly misspelt (fussy, I know but I notice these types of things!)

Due to the size of the game, it has been split over three multi-loads.  Unfortunately, there is no fast loader (which would have been nice).  Each section can take around three minutes to load so time to grab a quick snack, drink or a toilet break.

My top-tip is to use a tape player with a counter on it or else it’s an educated guess of where to re-load the cassette back too (or luck!). The three multi-load levels are The Jungle, Barin and Jet Bike Pursuit.

Inlay Card Presentation

I think it’s worth mentioning the inlay card of Flash Gordon.  The cover is very drawn but does show the screenshots are from the C64 version.

There is certainly plenty of text and I’d estimate it’d take just under 10 minutes to read it.  It obviously outlines the storyline and then goes into what the three levels are about.  I suggest looking at it as the controls do vary from level to level.

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