Amstrad CPC Review: Roland Series

The Roland series is a strange one; concieved as a mascot for the Amstrad CPC, the 8 games bearing his name were all released in 1984, generally have very little relation to one another and appear to feature different protagonists graphically. This is because the games were developed before the mascot, and his name attached afterwards. As a result, it can hardly be called a series of games at all, but I have 3 titles bearing the Roland name for my Amstrad CPC, and I'd rather get them all over with together. I decided to play them in an order that made sense as a short story, rather than going by release date, as specifics were hard to find.

Game: Roland Goes Digging
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Gem Software
Release Date: 1984

With the definite feel of a 1980s arcade game, Roland Goes Digging is an intuitive and easy to learn game. Players must dig holes in order to trap and subsequently kill a bunch of aliens who have invaded a building site. The motive we are given for doing so is that Roland is strapped for cash, and this is a means of earning money for him. Once every alien has been trapped and killed, the next level begins with a greater number of aliens.

Holes are dug in 3 button presses, and aliens trapped in half-dug holes become angry before escaping and moving faster than they were able to previously. Aliens who have been trapped in a hole, but not killed whilst unable to move also become angry in the same way. Roland can fall down holes he has dug without taking damage, and fill them back in once dug. If he touches an alien, however he loses a life, and after 5 deaths it's game over.

Graphically the game isn't much to look at; Roland's face is bright red for some reason and the aliens appear to be ovals with wings and red circles for eyes. That said, the Amstrad CPC's graphical capabilities are quite low anyway. Musically the game features an arrangement of "Hi Ho" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves behind gameplay which isn't the worst thing ever, but isn't exactly original either.

Overall the game plays decently though a fair amount of time is spent waiting for aliens to fall into your holes, since they seem to wander randomly. Although the first few levels can be cleared fairly easily by isolating Roland on a platform and digging holes around it, later levels depend on the arrangement of ladders for their difficulty; still, this is a playable little arcade style game.

Rating: 42/100
Grade: E

Game: Roland In The Caves
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Indescomp
Release Date: 1984

Having dug too far (at least that's how I imagined it) Roland finds himself in the caves, transformed into a bug with incredible jumping powers. To escape, he must jump from ledge to ledge, and find the exit whilst avoiding being caught by a pterodactyl and flesh eating plants. With a hugely powerful jump, Roland is able to fling himself around the caves either to the left or right, adjusting the difficulty by the length of button press on the keyboard.

The real issue with the game is that it's difficult to tell how much power to put into a jump and in which direction to travel. The pterodactyl is merciless in its pursuit of Roland and gives him no time to think about his route out. Playing the game for a short while resulted in a great many deaths for Roland, a little progress towards escaping that I found difficult to recreate on subsequent turns and exactly 0 points scored overall.

Graphically the game is colourful at least, with various features to its cave but there's very little to see due to the overall size of the playing area. Roland is a tiny purple bug in this instalment of the series, and the pterodactyl is the only other real character sprite. Musically the game uses "La Cucaracha" this time as a theme, which works arguably less well than the previous game's music.

Overall Roland in the Caves is difficult to progress with, hard to control and not even worth your time. It seems fairly hastily developed, lacking in features and ideas and devoid of much imagination, even for the time it was released. It's the kind of game that you only see on such early systems because at least they had an excuse.

Rating: 3/100
Grade: F

Game: Roland On The Ropes
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Indescomp
Release Date: 1984

Possibly the most conventionally game-like of my Roland games collection, Roland on the Ropes features the titular character exploring a maze like arrangement of caves in search of treasures as he dodges attacks from ghosts, chameleons and other monsters. The game controls like a regular platformer for the most part; up is used to jump and the fire button is used to operate Roland's gun until it runs out of bullets.

This being said, the level layout is more akin to a maze than levels in most platform games with several dead ends and platforms to jump up to. The only real use for the jump function is to avoid small enemies on the floor, though this is difficult to pull off without taking damage. In fact it's hard to even progress to the next screen of the maze without losing all of Roland's health as ghosts are in abundance and are able to make their way through walls and other obstacles with ease.

Graphically the game is far better overall that either of the previous releases, and Roland actually looks as if he might be human. There's some nice detail on the blocks in the cave, and the enemies are easy to identify even if they're not easy to avoid. Music has been left out of the game in favour of sound effects, which seems to be a good decision overall with the longer format of this game, and the amount of times a musical theme would have to repeat within a turn.

Overall though Roland on the Ropes is fairly frustrating as the number of traps, dead ends and enemies far outweighs the amount of power-ups and exits, meaning that player's chances of progressing are greatly diminished. The game does feel as if it has potential though, and plays far more like later titles than the other two games I've reviewed.

Rating: 26/100
Grade: E