Captain Dynamo

Captain Dynamo is a solid entry in Codemasters' string of excellent cartoon platformers.

As chubby, smiley Captain Dynamo, your goal is to rescue your girl's diamonds from a loony old villain. The game is a vertically-scrolling affair set over twelve levels. There are about fifty diamonds on each one, but thankfully you don't have to collect them all-- all you have to do is survive long enough to reach the end of the level, where a fizzing transporter is waiting to zap you into the next cavern.

Although it sounds like nothing new, as usual Codemasters have enough tricks up their sleeves to make the game much more than a simple arcade game. The game requires skill, timing, and a good sense of balance. This is because although you can jump from one platform to the next, some of them are impossible to reach unless you use the "booster pads," which are scattered around each level. Since you usually will land on spike traps (which get you killed right away), this makes the game quite tricky. Worst, you get only three lives and no credits, so basically you must finish the game in one go-- not an easy thing to do even for the most experienced gamer.

With the number of traps and baddies pitted against you, getting beyond Level Three is a real challenge. Still, leaping around the platforms and dodging the bad guys is a lot of fun and addictive. Also, the one really nice feature is that you can collect the "restart points" (placed randomly on levels) to choose where to reappear when you get killed.

Codemasters fans won't be disappointed with Captain Dynamo, although it would appeal to a lot more gamers had the difficulty been turned down a notch. Thumbs up!

Review By HOTUD