Game Review: Thingy and The Doodahs (ZX Spectrum, Americana)

Grab Those Coins and Make a Stash

You play as Thingy who has been a bit of a wally and broken his beloved Spectrum (which sounds like a real horror story to me!).  The aim of the game is to wander around the screens and mazes, collecting at least 60 out of the possible 64 scatted around.  Once you have collected the money, you can then buy a new Spectrum before your parents find out!

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the game looks like a bit of platformer but it’s a game where you purely walk around collecting the coins.

Plenty of Screens but Does It Keep You Entertained?

Well, yes and no.  Although there are plenty of screens to venture around in (some with multiple exits, which I like), the game can be slightly less entertaining for two reasons.

Firstly, when there are lots moving of baddies on the screen, it slows down the gameplay a lot.  This can result in the game at some stages becoming a bit boring.  You can see a major difference when you enter the first maze screen where suddenly you walk at around three times the pace (as there are no baddies on the screen).

Secondly, the coins can be very far and few between near the start of the game.  It can take quite a while just to get a few coins, giving you a sense of not getting very far straight away.

Playability

Thingy can only walk in up, down, left or right directions with no leaping or diagonal movements and the controls are responsive enough to play the game.  The speed though all depends on how many aliens are also moving on the screen at the same time too.

What I liked whilst playing Thingy and The Doodahs, is that if any baddies collide with each other, they change and move in the opposite direction.  This makes the game a bit less predictable as some will gradually home in on your position.  A bit of short-term planning is required to get around some screens, adding to a sense of challenge.  Depending on how you move and when can therefore make a difference, making it more interesting than just a repeating pattern.

Graphics and Animation

The loading system draws the screen quite quickly from the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to the top-right.  In addition, there is a countdown timer to let you know how long you have remaining for the game to load (nice!)

Displayed on the right-hand side of the screen is your location, money collected, remaining lives, whether you can get a Spectrum and a rating.  The graphics are all very colourful and the animation works well throughout the game (with minimal colour clash.)

Not all screens are named so sometimes the locations are blank (obviously not naming the maze makes sense).  Along the way though, you will come across certain areas which seem to be themed.  So, for example you will come across sports screens named Darts, Football (with three stickmen and a small ball!) and Cricket all within a few joined screens.  Others examples are school areas and boardgames but there are others.

Sound and Music

There is sound whilst playing the game, but I wouldn’t really call it a proper tune.  It’s more like very short notes moving up and down a scale and then back down again but with a few tiny extra effects added in between.  It can be switched off, should you wish.  Although not great, to be fair though, at least an attempt was made to do something here, so I’m not totally knocking it.

Collision with a baddie makes either a single or couple of beeps and collecting coins makes a high-pitched clinking type sound (just as you’d now doubt imagine reading this.)

Inlay Cover Artwork

I must give credit to whoever drew the artwork for the cassette inlay cover.  It is comical with Thingy holding a Spectrum whilst running down a pavement with ghosts and aliens around.  It demonstrates the creativity that people had when designing games back then!

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