Spectrum Computing

How did Joe Blade spawn 2 sequels?
Anyone like it?

Maybe its because I had to be mapping the game for it to be enjoyable?

I only played Joe Blade 2, it was a crash smash but one of the other mags only gave it about 60%

I hated it. The characters felt too light, the shooting was unsatifsying and I never liked any game that had that kind of level layout apart from the second half of Freddy Hardest maybe.

It was by Players right? The worst company ever for style over substance.

True, so I'm not missing anything then
Joe Blade 1 must've sold a bunch based on the macho cover art...and going on the fact that army games had been very good on spectrum
e.g. Rambo Commando, Green Beret.

Only played JB3, I thought it had a nice 'stealth exploring the enemy territory' feel to it at the time (sort of like Saboteur), if that makes sense. Never got too far with it though with all the bombs and whatnot.

I was never a fan of Joe Blade. So yes, please tell me what's nice and special about this game.

blucey wrote: ↑Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:51 am I never liked any game that had that kind of level layout apart from the second half of Freddy Hardest maybe.

Ahh, yeah, that second part of Freddy Hardest, that was great. Had that back in the day. Managed to complete that part of the game a few times. But never completed part A. Thank god Zap Chat existed with the access code.

Colin Swinbourne did a few same-y games around this type setup. Joe Blade, Brat Attack (SU covertape + naked pixels), Day in the life of Thing. Tried a few of them while sorting out my retro-collection, without reading the instructions. They looked good, but I hope there's a game hiding somewhere in there that's more than just moving all the way right, pick up item, move all the way left, pick up another item.

Joe Blade 2 was my introduction to the series. It looked good but was a bit simplistic... you're in a city overrun with thugs but none of them could harm you. In fact you could only die if you tried to save the old farts wandering about and messed up the subgame. Saying that I quite like it. I can usually complete it as there's 3 ways to do it.
After that I played Joe Blade 1, but it was much too hard. You could jump through a doorway and end up jumping into the path of a thug you didn't know would be there and pretty much die instantly. Or smack your head on a mine.
Joe Blade 3 I played a bit more and got further but again, too hard. And Prison Riot was more of the same.

The first must have sold well enough but the feedback clearly was the game is too hard so they toned it down. Then 2 was too easy so they ramped it up again. But they never hit that sweet spot and got it right. Halving the damage you took would be the obvious idea & allowing you to kill with a jump kick like in Joe Blade 2 to save ammo would be 2 easy ways to make the games more fun and enjoyable as they are nicely programmed titles. Oh well.

Deviants was another Player's title that was playable but flawed and had those infuriating subgames.

Good to hear from someone who played them properly


Do you think it is playable without making a map?

I only could play it till I downloaded from internet and it's not a bad game. Agree about a map is indispensable.

I have no idea why Players hyped and invested so much into this series. The gameplay is rather "meh", I don't think I ever heard of any other Spectrum users talk in an enthused way about it (unlike Dizzy). It's a cool name, but just has the feel of a disposable magazine covertape effort.

I liked the first and third chapters of the series, very good value for money. The second chapter seemed rather boring to me however.