5. Mr Puniverse
Although Mr Puniverse is based on a character from the Late Late Breakfast Show, the link is very tenuous. In Tony Kelly’s sequel to Big Mac, here the game is presented as a maze of twenty-five screens where you need to locate all the vitamin pills to stay alive. The look and feel with the pseudo 3D platforms like Big Mac gives the game familiarity, with some fiendish platform puzzles to solve. Getting some of those pills will mean avoiding plungers, laser fire and much more, although there is some backtracking in the maze which can be a little tiresome. The same playability and addictive nature does shine through, and the challenge is quite sizeable and will give you hours of fun whilst you work out a suitable path to locate the final pill. It is a coin toss between this and Big Mac, but this just edges it due to its larger challenge overall.
4. Prospector Pete
The sadly missed Doug Turner produced a couple of Mastertronic games, and Prospector Pete, based on O’Riley’s Mine on the Commodore 64, gives you an excellent slice of arcade action for the price. You need to explore the underground mine in each level, and collect all the objects from the mine, including those which toggle with skulls meaning death unless you collect them at the right time. The fast pace of the game as the water from the mine explosion fills the mine along with the mine meanies attempting to locate you works well. In addition, a handy continue from the level you reached feature means that there is plenty of replay value to get a high score and see the later levels. Fun, frenetic and with gallons of playability, this game shows intelligence in its design, difficulty curve and look and feel, with so much to enjoy.
3. P.O.D. Proof of Destruction
The first Shaun Southern entry here, and for a good reason. P.O.D. Proof of Destruction is a first-class shoot-em-up which is fast, frenetic, and immensely playable with that one more go factor being very strong. This is the original version of this game too. Set on grid, you need to destroy the Bad Guys who come down the grid, but shooting them also destroys part of the grid which limits your movement. You must survive each of the sixteen levels for an amount of time before progressing for the next one, so although the urge to fire en masse may be tempting, a better tactic may be not to destroy as much of the grid. Splashes of colour throughout, with a meaty title theme too. The game’s difficulty is well judged so that you get further each time, and with superb responsive controls and playability, the game has all the arcade action you could wish for – and if it had a two-player mode (which is superb on the Commodore 64 conversion) this would be ranked even higher.
2. Kikstart
Shaun Southern took a different approach when doing a version of Kikstart, his very popular Commodore 64 bike game. Although still side on and with levels to complete, the level designs more resemble the arcade game Superbike. The sixteen levels scroll smoothly and offer you several obstacles for your bike to jump over including hedges, holes, and steps, as well springboards to launch you into the air. You will also need to watch out for the lightning too. The game has superb playability with responsive controls and you can progress further each time as you learn the level layouts and which speed to take the jumps at. With five bikes to use and a time limit for each level, and an extra bike at the end of the level if you need it, everything has been well crafted with thought going in to the game design to make a thoroughly enjoyable game – complete with the Kick Start TV series theme on the title screen. One you will come back to repeatedly for the high score or which level you can get to challenge.
1. Tutti Frutti
Shaun Southern’s finest game on the Commodore 16 and Plus/4, Tutti Frutti, sees a mixture of the arcade games Mr Do, Dig Dug and Pengo, with you as Super Strawberry roaming the orchards to collect all the cherries or get rid of all of the acid apples. With the levels offering different ways to complete them for extra points but more risk, and with the pace increasing the frenetic feel the further you get into it, this huge slice of arcade action comes with so much to recommend it. The excellent use of the colour palette gives a polished look and feel and the game’s tune is earworm which goes into your head and never leaves. Above all else, the playability is spot on – everything responds and moves well, the satisfaction you get of pushing a block into multiple acid apples at the same time is immense, and the fact you only get five lives with no extras means every move can be crucial between beating your best score or falling short. Not only is it the best Mastertronic game for the system, but it is one of the best commercially released games that fit into 16K for the system too – it is that good. If you have never played it before, I can recommend that you do so and see how good the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 can be in the right hands. It is also that highly regarded that years later, a Commodore 64 homebrew version was also produced.
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Final Thoughts
So, there you have it, ten excellent games which show off the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 very well, and given the limitations of fitting a game into 16K, concentration was put into some very good graphics and playability especially, meaning that you would spend hours playing each game. There were so many other games worthy of consideration and just bubbling under the top 10, there are some honourable mentions to Bandits at Zero, Dingbat, GWNN, Megabolts, Oblido, Powerball, Squirm, Storm and The Exploits of Fingers Malone, all of which could have made this list (and are also all worth checking out too.)
But whilst that top ten was what I thought, were there any games that you preferred which would make your own list? We would be interested to know your thoughts, so please do comment and provide your own top ten should you wish to do so.
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