Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Commodore
Release Date: 1984
In Fire Ant, you play as the last surviving ant of a colony whose mission it is to rescue the queen ant from scorpions. You have to negotiate 6 chambers with locked doors, keys and obstacles to reach the end. The eggs which scorpions lay are your only food supply and must be eaten to keep your strength up. It's somewhat of an odd concept on the face of it; scorpions and ants aren't usual enemies as far as I'm aware but the game works decently as an exploration based puzzle idea. In some chambers there are special powers which clear a way for you to progress.
Graphically the game is fairly primitive (although it was release in 1984 so I can cut it some slack) and objects are only as detailed as they need to be to recognise what they represent. The walking sound effect can be irritating after a while of playing but most of the other effects are bearable. Gameplay revolves around getting keys to unlock doors and avoiding scorpions, mainly. Overall it's fun for a little while, although simple.
Rating: 29/100
Grade: F
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Commodore
Release Date: 1985
Icicle Works is a puzzle type game with a Christmas theme, in which you play as Santa, dodging snowballs and collecting presents in order to make a vehicle in which to escape levels. Once you've collected enough presents, the rest turn to bonuses on screen and you're allowed to exit the level through one of the doors which lead to other levels. As you progress more and more parts are needed for each vehicle and the level designs get harder.
Graphically the game has a simple style which retains the winter theme with both the colour scheme and scoring font. If a player loses a life, the screen turns to snowballs before resetting. There's music throughout the game which is a nice change from most Commodore titles, and it's bearable. Overall it's a fun little puzzler that gets pretty hard in the end and can frustrate, but retains a high level of playability for a Commodore Plus/4 title.
Rating: 31/100
Grade: E
Game: Crazy Golf
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Mr. Micro
Release Date: 1984
Pretty much scraping the bottom of the gaming barrel, Crazy Golf for the Commodore Plus/4 is perhaps the most frustrating sports game ever created. To hit the ball you have to select from 8 compass directions with left/right, and the power you want to impart on the ball with up/down. Invariably the ball will go either way too far, or stop far too soon, and it's very difficult to even putt the ball once, let alone finish one round. There's no real way to aim shots so that they go into the hole, most of the game is guesswork.
Graphically I'm not even sure what's going on in this game: the ball is a small yellow dot, the hole is a white circle and the rest of the course is a mystery. Whatever the squiggles and boxes represent, they act like impenetrable walls that the ball must be guided around. Save for the odd bleep, the game is devoid of music, and fairly boring. Overall this is one of the worst titles for the system in my opinion as it borders on unplayable.
Rating: 3/100
Grade: F
Game: Mayhem
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Mr. Micro
Release Date: 1984
In Mayhem you play as a space captain, transporting a ship full of "Blibbles" to a new planet which actually has room for them (unlike their home planet, according to the game manual). There's a problem though; the Blibbles are attempting to escape from the cargo bay, and are headed for sure destruction as they move toward the transporter ray. Your task is to save them by trapping them before they vaporise themselves into oblivion. Once 10 have been let through to the transporter, you've lost the game.
Graphically the game is rather basic; that white thing in the bottom left is a Blibble and you're represented by the reticule in top centre of the screen. The crate in the top left can be dragged to anywhere on the screen, and if it touches a Blibble then they're saved from a nasty fate. The sound effects for the game can best be described as noise, and are probably its worst aspect. Other than the soundtrack, the game's fairly fun for as long as you can stand to stop Blibbles from killing themselves.
Rating: 22/100
Grade: F
Game: Ace: Air Combat Emulator
Console: Commodore Plus/4
Developer: Cascade Games
Year: 1985
Possibly the most advanced game on the Commodore Plus/4, Ace: Air Combat Emulator plays a lot like later flying games, such a Afterburner and G-LOC, but makes use of both the keyboard and joystick to control the plane. The player can choose what sort of targets they'd like to destroy from planes, ships, or ground targets as well as a combination of those. The main aim of gameplay is to destroy all enemy forces onscreen.
The graphics are fairly basic, but for a flying game they're just as good as other early titles. Impressively the game plays just like later flight simulators, with roll and pitch indicators, altitude and the freedom to move anywhere you want to on the map. It may sound like I'm getting excited over things that are pretty much standard nowadays, but for a Commodore Plus/4 game this is extremely impressive. Overall this is possibly the best Commodore game I've played; not only is it enjoyable, but it feels like it has ideas way ahead of its time.
Rating: 62/100
Grade: C
So there we are, that's all the Commodore Plus/4 games I currently own. I do plan to buy some more at some point but until then, watch out for my review of the system itself coming up very soon.
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