Game Review: Hero of the Golden Talisman (Commodore 64, MAD)

Hero of the Golden Talisman is a flick screen arcade adventure, and quite a large one at that, with plenty of screens to explore.  The plot explains that a great city was once protected from evil by the Golden Talisman.  However, the five pieces are now scattered in a labyrinth, and you need to find the five pieces whilst gathering spells to beat the fire breathing dragons, get enough air to swim around the water, and find the five pieces to eliminate the wizard in a showdown and release the people from their torment.

It is worth noting there are two variants of the cassette version – one comes with a very basic loading screen with just the title of the game, and a later release which has a Jim Wilson loading screen which matches the cover art, that is also present on the disk version too.

Most of this plot, along with some very handy hints for playing the sections of the game to locate the talisman pieces, are mentioned in the very long scrolling message on the title screen, which also contains a self-interview with Shaun Southern, so it is worth letting the version of Fugue (from Toccata and Fugue) play along with it – a reasonably nice rendition of a classical piece, with the Toccata section playing when you start the game to enter the labyrinth, with the “abandon hope all ye enter here” warning you of the challenge ahead.

Exploring the Labyrinth

One of the first things you will encounter is how to master some of the basics, such as collecting objects and keys as well as the diagonal jump.  This is particularly useful as you can jump from one platform down to another one without entering the water, which is an essential skill throughout the game and will take practice to work out where you leaps need to be.  The coloured keys match the corresponding doors, although if you manage to find a white key, that opens any door (apart from the ones which you need a talisman piece for, which are in grey)  The air allows you time under the water without losing your strength.

You can climb ropes to reach higher platforms, and do note you can only exit the water where there is a rope above, so that is useful to know.  There are also weapons to collect, and each weapon can deal with a dragon in that section more efficiently as you encounter them.  So, for the second section, the second weapon works best.  You should only need one weapon at a time in your inventory, and always the strongest one – your basic weapon is very weedy and will take far too long to kill the dragons off without losing valuable strength.

Give Me Strength

You lose strength by colliding into nasties, such as the fish underwater, or if you have no air left and are swimming in a water section.  That is sensible design so you can still swim but take the risk if you wish to.  The fire from the dragons and the final wizard will drain your strength also, with careful positioning and jumping required with the right weapon to kill them quickly.  Strength can be regained by eating fruit around the labyrinth, and when you complete one of the five sections and unlock the grey door with the talisman piece.

Give Them Enough Rope

In the first section, locating a piece of rope is key, which can then be used in your inventory to jump on to a wall which reveals a rope to climb down.  This gives you access to a section to locate a scroll, which can be used to destroy a wall – handy as the talisman piece happens to be right behind one of those walls too, so having the scroll for it saves a lot of back tracking.  You will also need a candle or two, as when activated they light up rooms which would otherwise be dark and you would be chancing jumps or rope climbs which you may not be able to see.

Inventory Is Everything

In the inventory, the space bar cycles through and the left-hand object, with a yellow border around the box to indicate it is active, and this is either activated automatically in the right room (such as the candle) or will unlock the correct door with the matching-coloured key.  Most of the time your active object will be the weapon in use, which is very handy to see off the enemies on each screen.  You do get a respite from some of them in some screens which gets very handy when you need to note where you are.  Mapping this game out is essential if you want to get anywhere, and once you start to note the way, you will progress a lot further each time.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are rudimentary, with the labyrinth laid out in blocks which can have walls, rope, water, doors, or enemies, with some reasonable animation on the main character and the enemies themselves, of which there are many types.  The sound in game is just effects, such as firing the weapon, a sound when you swim in the water and collecting an object.  They are rudimentary but they do the job.

The status display shows a small-scale version of the map, denoted in squares.  Squares in blue means all objects have been collected from that section, and those in red are not yet fully explored, which should help you along the way.  The score, strength and air meters are clear with the inventory displayed below, making it also clear which is the current object in use – and less clutter is much better here in my view.

Once You Start, You Cannot Stop

Once you start Hero of the Golden Talisman, it is very difficult to put down.  The occasional diagonal jump can be fiddly if you come off the edge of the platform, but the key is to prepare the walk towards the edge and then jump, and that does work well.  Swimming is smooth, and you will learn the patterns of the fish and how to avoid them.  Getting the keys and unlocking doors to new sections is very satisfying indeed, and getting that first talisman piece is an achievement as you progress.  I do wish a save game feature had been added, as even if you know the map off by heart, the game takes a good hour and a half to complete and saving the game and coming back to it would have been useful for later.  However, the one more go factor here is impressive nonetheless.

There is also a sense that you really want to keep going until you find all five talisman pieces and before you know it, it will be late at night as you draw more map sections to try and remember exactly which way the next key or the next vital object is to aid you on your quest.  And once you find a certain cloak, and use that well, you will be close to the end and the battle with the wizard.  I can remember reaching that and the battle that ensued was very tense indeed, and pure edge of the seat moments too.

Final Thoughts

Hero of the Golden Talisman really shows what a good budget game should be in the right hands.  Whilst the graphics and sound are not the most advanced, they do their job and it is at least clear what you must do as you progress.  The key factor here is its playability, with good responsive controls and plenty of puzzles to solve to work out how to get the talisman pieces and unlock the doors to get further.   The difficulty is set about right and I have been able to complete the game in the past, albeit with the help of a good map, but that did take a few years of playing to do so. The longevity as well as the fun of exploring really does come to the fore, and those of you who love arcade adventures will enjoy this hugely.

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