HOME / REVIEWS / OCTOBER 2011

Game of the Month: Knock Out 2

Knock Out 2 - Image taken from Lemon Amiga website

October 2011 Public Domain Game Reviews
Reviews by Christian Clarke

Klawz the Kat

This month the review page is dedicated to games begining with the letter "K".  Up first is a platform game involving a Cat. 

The game is professional in terms of its presentation.  There is a good use of colour and the backgrounds have some nice animation to keep them interesting.  It would have been nice for parallex scrolling to be used as was the trend with commercial games such as Robocod and Zool.

There is some good music used during the loading screen at the start of the game but unfortunately it seems there is no in game music.  This is a shame as it would have added to the game play especially if the tune was as memorable as the tunes used in commercial platform games such as Giana Sisters or Alladdin.

There is a back story to this game but it is the usual cliche - girlfriend captured - hero heads off to the rescue.  This is perhaps the biggest problem with Klawz - it offers nothing new and therefore fails to excite you to play this game for a long period of time.  There is the option to hit the enemies with a trunchon but this soon becomes repetitive - perhaps some varied animated death sequences for the badies would have made the game more interesting rather than just stunning the baddies for a few moments. 

Overall the graphics of this game are professionally put together.  The lack of level design such as those present in the Mario games hinder the game play and make it unlikely that you would play this game more than once.  

The game can be downloaded from our new download page for game titles starting with K.

Amigapd would like to thank S2325 from the EAB forum for the youtube video.

****
Review by Christian Clarke

KungFu Charlies

One of my favourite Amiga games was IK+.  The speed of the combat and the silly sounds effects instantly made the game appealing.  The silly name of this game made me hope that I would be in for a similar experience.

Loading up the game my initial reaction was one of happyness as the sound effects temporarily took me back to IK+.  However this joy was short lived as the game soon became repetitive.  The levels are similar and the aim is simply to clear each screen of the badies which fall onto the platforms in a similar way as Bionic Commando.

It is the lack of variation which proves this games downfall.  IK+ had some mini games between the levels which helped to break the monotony.  It is a shame that a similar approach wasn't taken with this game.  Without any variety in game play the endless punching or kicking of enemies soon becomes tiresome.  The actual combat is simplistic which wouldn;t be a problem if the levels had some problem solving taks or variation in terms of moving platforms or disappearing platforms.

Overall this game seems to be unfinished due to the lack of variety in gameplay.  A few extra months introducing more variety in the way the enemies fight, the way the levels were structured and the inclusion of some mini games would have made this an outstanding title.  Without these the game is an average platform game. 

The game can be downloaded from our new download page for game titles starting with K.

Amigapd would like to thank S2325 from the EAB forum for the youtube video.

**
Review by Christian Clarke

Knock Out 2  - GAME OF THE MONTH

 
It seems strange that the two other games reviewed this month have been criticised for their lack of variety when the game of the month has a very simple concept.  All you have to do is push your opponents cars out of the ever decreasing combat ring.  There are no power ups, no mini games or no upgrading your car. These lack of options do hinder the single player game but is the multiplayer game which makes this game shine.

Long before internet connection and online game play, computer games used to be a social past time where you would invite your friends round to your house to play a game in the same room.  The normal multi player games were often limited to 4 player and sometimes these required extra mutli tap connections to the joystick ports. Some games however used the keyboard as the control method allowing more than 4 players to challenge each other.  Knockout was brave in trying to attempt to get 8 players huddled around the Amiga keyboard.  The close proximity of the players meant that you could hear them breathing, muttering under their breath and see the panic in their fingers as they hammered the keyboard in desperation as they tried to avoid being knocked out of the death areana.

If you still have your original Amiga and have friends over for a few beers and some computer game fun then you can't really go wrong with this.  The short time it takes to play each round means that every player still feels part of the game as they do not have to wait too long after being knocked out of the arena for their opportunity to seek revenge.  And they will want to seek revenge so be warned !!

**** Review by Christian Clarke

The game can be downloaded from our new download page for game titles starting with K.

Amigapd would like to thank S2325 from the EAB forum for the youtube video.

AmigaPd Charityware

I hope you enjoyed this months review page - if you did please support our chosen charity Mencap by visiting our Just Giving Page.