Dizzy Series - Part 5

Fantasy World Dizzy (1989)
By: Oliver Twins / Code Masters Genre: Arcade Adventure Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: ZX Spectrum
Also Available For: Amiga, Atari ST, PC, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Enterprise 64/128

Yet another lovely Codies loading screen...

A common topic of debate among gamers, especially Speccy fans, is thus: which of Dizzy's magnificent adventures is the best? There is no correct answer, obviously. Lots of fans still vote for the second game, Treasure Island Dizzy, but my answer has long been Fantasy World Dizzy. This might be because I can actually finish it without too much trouble (kind of - more on that later) but it sure is a mighty pleasant game anyway. It sees a return to the fantasy-theme of the original game - it's actually even more fantasy-ish here - and is also notable for introducing the 'Yolkfolk', a bunch of unhelpful buffoons who comprise Dizzy's family. The object of the game, however, is to rescue another of his associates, his ditzy girlfriend Daisy, who's gone and gotten abducted by the evil King Troll while walking through a forest.

The main 'hub' of the main castle...

Basically though, everything is as it was in Treasure Island, gameplay wise. Dizzy starts off a prisoner himself, in a different dungeon to Daisy (a whole different castle, in fact), so the first order of business it so escape. After that, he must find and rescue Daisy. All this is done in the same way as usual; that is, by collecting various items that you encounter and then using them in the right place to allow access to further areas. As with the previous game there are thirty gold coins to collect here, many of which are hidden, and only by collecting all of these will you be able to complete the game properly. It's slightly larger than its predecessor at just over fifty screens, though still slightly smaller than the original, and includes some great locations such as the large castle, another tree-village, and lots of smaller stuff in between.

Eeek, a scary dragon! Yes, he breathes fire too!

There are a couple of nice (though brief) surprises too, which I won't spoil here, and generally it's as pleasant to look at as previous games. The colour-clash on Dizzy himself is still slightly irksome and I'd like to see different colours for the background/sky as well, but it's another colourful and appealing game and nearly every screen is distinctive. The audio is again poor for 48k users but there is decent in-game music and even a bit of speech for 128k owners! This revelation aside, however, the only differences as far as the actual game is concerned are small ones. There's no score this time (not that it served much of a purpose anyway) and only two items can be carried at once, although this can be increased to four and you can now choose which one you want to drop/use which saves a lot of messing around.

High in the treetops dwells... Grand-Dizzy!

Crucially, however, by far the most helpful change is that you now get more than a single life - three of them no less! On top of that, there are now less things that can kill Dizzy as well. Consequently, while Fantasy World may not feature as sumptuous locales as Treasure Island, it is quite a bit easier and less frustrating. Indeed, rescuing Daisy shouldn't take too long at all, but finding all thirty coins first will take much more work. Aside from a few small changes though, some of which don't even affect the game (such as the Yolkfolk), it's the same as the other games, just with different 'stages', so you should already know if you'll like it or not. I do, very much. It's another great, addictive platform adventure, and it was a hell of a bargain in its day too. The only thing I'm not so sure about is if it's the best Dizzy game yet. Perhaps so...

RKS Score: 8/10

Gameplay Video: here's a video of the whole game being played by a talented fellow called PSI236. Don't watch if you want to avoid spoilers!