■ The CD32 version of Soccer Kid
adds an animated intro with a plucky
voiceover detailing the absurd plot:
aliens have stolen the World Cup, for
reasons, but their spaceship crashes
and pieces of the trophy have been
scattered to the four corners of the
Earth. The game is brutally hard by
today’s standards, but the sheer
novelty of using a football to defeat
enemies makes this curio worth
checking out. SOCCER KID
■ DEVELOPER: KRISALIS
■ YEAR: 1994
■ Another game with a fancy intro
added for its CD32 incarnation, this
port is arguably one of the best
versions of The Chaos Engine out
there. The graphics are far more
vibrant than the Amiga 500 version- although some prefer the muted
palette of the earlier effort. Still, the
brighter colours do make the game
easier to parse: the enemies stand
out from the background rather than
getting lost in a smear of grey on grey.
THE CHAOS ENGINE
■ DEVELOPER: THE BITMAP BROTHERS
■ YEAR: 1994■ Objectively speaking, Ultimate
Body Blows is not very good. But
as a nostalgia hit it’s wonderful, a
reminder of the time when devs were
falling over themselves to cash in
on the success of Street Fighter II.
Plus the CD32 version included all 22
characters from Body Blows and Body
Blows Galactic. The line-up included a
man riding a dinosaur, which is surely
worth the price of entry. ULTIMATE
BODY BLOWS
■ DEVELOPER: TEAM17
■ YEAR: 1994
■ This follow-up to Cinemaware’s
massively popular Defender Of The
Crown was exclusive to the CD32, but
despite the number two in the title,
it wasn’t actually a sequel. In fact it
was more of a remake, featuring the
same plot as the first game, only with
improved graphics, full voiceover and
a number of tweaks including more
nuanced swordfighting and catapults
that shoot fireballs. DEFENDER OF
THE CROWN II
■ DEVELOPER: SACHS ENTERPRISES
■ YEAR: 1993■ Diggers was bundled with the CD32 at launch
and was a rare console exclusive, although it was
later converted to the Amiga 1200 and PC. And for
a launch game, it’s good. Many have compared it with
Lemmings, but besides some superficial similarities,
there’s little overlap between the two.
The game is set over 34 huge levels, and the aim
is to dig through the soil to reach gemstones buried
below. You complete each level by mining enough
gemstones to meet the level’s credit quota, but there’s
also a rival team of diggers racing to reach that quota,
too. Your five-strong mining team are each controlled
individually, and you can order them to walk, dig, pick
up objects, and so on. But they’re also fantastically
stupid, and think nothing of walking into a lake and
drowning, so each requires careful shepherding.
There’s huge depth here (sorry), particularly in
the way you can use credits to buy faster mining
equipment. Do you divert funds away from reaching
your credit goal in the hope of gaining more gems
through better mining tools? And then there’s the
option of sneaking into your rivals’ tunnels to steal
their gems before they reach them, at the risk of your
diggers being beaten to a pulp by burly, angry enemies.
Plus there are four mining races to choose from, each
with different strengths and weaknesses, and because
your miners can’t scale anything steeper than a gentle
slope, your excavations require careful planning to avoid
cutting yourself off from the tunnel network above.
A word of warning, though: it’s practically unplayable
with the gamepad, but luckily it’s easy enough to plug
in a mouse. And the same caveat goes for a certain
game starring a man named after a can of beer.DIGGERS
■ PUBLISHER: MILLENNIUM INTERACTIVE ■ YEAR: 1993» [CD32] Diggers star ted of f life as a CD32
exclusive, but was eventually released on both PC and
the Amiga 120 0.» [CD32] The small sprites are actually ver y
useful as they allow you to see more of the
playing rea, which is ver y handy.78 | RETRO GAMER