Arcade Platform Games #6

Karnov (1987)
By: Data East Genre: Platform/Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 84,590 (one credit)
Also Available For: NES, PC, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

The gaming world has seen a lot of unusual characters over the years and this is one that stands out, to me at least, as being an overlooked example. I mean, he's a human which certainly isn't unusual, but he has very specifically been made as hailing from one of the Soviet Union's Central Asian republics. Not only that but he's a fire-breathing, ex-circus strongman. He has even been given a full name - Jinborov Karnovski, or Karnov for short. I wonder what prompted Data East to conjure this fellow up. I'm not even totally sure he's a good guy either. He appears in several later Data East games as a villainous character, and your objective with him here is find pieces of a lost treasure map so he can plunder the resultant booty. Perhaps he's stealing the ancient heirlooms of a long proud and honourable civilisation? Oh well, whatever possibly-nefarious motivation the muscle-bound brute has, it's your job to guide him through nine side-scrolling stages, each brimming with innocent locals trying to resist the interloper.

Okay, many of them appear pretty mean themselves so they may not be altogether innocent and helpless to repel Karnov's indiscriminate savagery, though I'm still not sure they deserve fireballs in their faces. Nonetheless, the stages are set in various locales including villages, mountain passes, caverns and ancient cities/ruins. There's even an underwater area and one that looks like an alien landscape! They are very platformy too, with plenty of ledges to hop around, ladders to climb, gaps to fall down, and lots of multi-tiered sections. Enemies take all manner of forms; I'm not even sure what most of them are, quite honestly. Perhaps they are inspired by the folklore of the region in which the game is set, but they appear to include sword-wielding monks, rockmen, ostriches ridden by skeletons, gargoyles on clouds, gold statues, knight ghosts, mummies, those toothy gonks from Frak! and all sorts of other weird stuff in addition to more normal things like demonic and/or possessed birds, bats, fish and lions. There are also the level bosses of course, some of whom become normal enemies in later stages.

Despite the fact that the stages are left-to-right scrollers, enemies still manage to attack from the left as well as right - did they parachute down? Hmmm. Well, wherever they came from, many of them shoot (or throw) stuff at you, some of which you can shoot, some not. There is quite a bit of help available though. Of particular interest are orange orbs which will allow Karnov to spit two and then three fireballs at once, and there are also lots of 'K' icons dotted around, collecting enough of which will earn you an extra life. Even better, there are lots of other collectibles laying around the place including ladders, speed-ups, bombs, wings, boomerangs and various other things. These items, upon collection, will fill up a bar along the bottom of the screen. They can then be selected and used as you please. The process for selecting them is a little cumbersome - you simply press left or right to highlight the desired icon, but this still moves Karnov left and right too, so it can be a bit of a pain to use an item in a precise location, such as a ladder which may help him reach otherwise inaccessible platforms or bonuses.

Indeed, for there are quite a few secret areas and hidden collectibles about the place, and finding them can be a big help. There might be an item that will make an imminent boss battle a doddle, for example, or there could be a cache of K's to give you an extra life, and they always come in handy. Karnov's possibly-illegal plundering doesn't make for the hardest game in the world, and despite having a decent number of stages it can be finished in under 25 minutes by a learned player, but it's still pretty tricky. There is a time limit - 200 seconds per stage - but even if there wasn't you would need to keep moving as spooky fire-spitting plants fall from the heavens if you hang around for too long. It's the kind of game where it's easy to make a mistake, either way - all the enemies follow set patterns but get hit by one stray enemy shot from somewhere and you'll lose a life along with your fireball power-ups. You do keep your collection of items and any K's you've collected though, and you don't get sent too far back either.

It's both reasonably fair and quite tough at the same time then, but is it enjoyable to play? Well, control of the muscle-bound brute is pretty good - more responsive than one might expect for such an ogre, and his jumping distance is impressive, especially with the magic boots equipped. Graphically, it's not the most appealing game, to me at least. The detail and variety is fine but many areas are rather dull-looking and there are some garish colours used, even on bosses. One of them is a bright orange t-rex, for example! The audio isn't the best either - the effects are okay but basic and the music, while pretty good, is the same on every stage. I guess, therefore, if you like your retro fix to be something that looks and sounds nice, you might want to give something else a try. If you're more concerned with challenging, retro-flavoured platform/shooty action, however, then Karnov still has something to offer, even if it does have a slightly unorthodox hero (or possibly villain). It can often be a pain in the arse though.

RKS Score: 6/10

Gameplay Video: here's a video of the whole game being played by one of the talented fellows at AL82 Retrogaming Longplays (check out their great channel here). Oh, and don't watch if you want to avoid spoilers!