ZX HSC Round 8 - Kosmic Kanga / Pinball

[cmal]

Voted for Motos. Played it not too long ago and kinda enjoyed it.

[PeterJ]

I feel the same way about Manic Miner!

Me too!

[Morkin]

Now look what you've all done... Kosmic Kanga it is I suppose...

[akeley]

Haha...is it really that bad? My vote was a shot in the dark, have never seen it before. Hope it's not another Cannonball.

[clebin]

Haha...is it really that bad? My vote was a shot in the dark, have never seen it before. Hope it's not another Cannonball.

Kosmic Kanga is a great game. Definitely not another Cannonball! Smooth, responsive controls, nice difficulty level, pretty unique concept and gameplay. I guess no game is for everyone but it’s an underrated classic to my mind. Loved it as a kid and I think it’s aged really well (for a 1984 game obviously). That’s my sales pitch, I can do no more!

[akeley]

Ok, the voting is over, the winner is Morkin's favourite game - Kosmic Kanga, edging out the late-surging Motos by one vote. The RNG this week has decided to make Morkin even happier, and chose Pinball for the second game.

So:

Pinball (Sagittarian Software, 1983, chosen by Morkin)

Kosmic Kanga (Micromania, 1984, chosen by clebin)

The round ends at midnight on Sunday 20th September. Look out for a bonus game on Wednesday!

New players can still join in, at any time. Rules of this HSC are written up here and here, any questions please ask.

So after last week's glitzy AAA offerings we now have a lesser known but hopefully no less entertaining duo. Good luck!

[smurphboy]

Had quick play of Pinball Wizard over a coffee. Surprisingly responsive for an early (1983) speccy game, but the 'physics' is a little doubtful. I suspect time played is the key factor with this much RNG at play.

The inlay suggests that scores over 20,000 can be 'easily achieved' - we will see.

Pinball Wizard: 4995

[Juan F. Ramirez]

First attempts:

Kosmic Ganga: 490 (exasperating control!)
Pinball: 4,095

[Morkin]

Had a quick go this lunchtime.

Pinball - 11,935

Kosmic "effing" Kanga - 1,275

[PeterJ]

Kosmic Kanga: 765 is my best so far. Screenshot later in the week.

[RWAC]

Had a quick go this lunchtime.

Pinball - 11,935

Kosmic "effing" Kanga - 1,275

Doing the old pretending to hate a game then getting the best score on it!

Well played Morkin!

[Morkin]

It's penance for my rubbish Terra Cresta score. I hate myself.

[clebin]

A first score on the GREATEST Spectrum game ev... hang on, is that a pitchfork Morkin?

Kosmic Kanga - 3668

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Updated scores:

Kosmic Kanga: 640
Pinball: 7,140

[RWAC]

Kosmic Kanga 450
Pinball Wizard 2710

Two truly terrible games!

I'm very sorry Morkin, I didn't realise Kosmic Kanga was that bad. I think I'd even prefer Manic Miner!

[cmal]

Here's my first set of scores for the round, achieved on my trusty ZXBaremulator machine:

Kosmic Kanga: 2,002
Pinball: 10,800

Once I got used to Kanga's jumping and got my aiming up to snuff, the game is actually quite enjoyable. Made it to the 3rd level.
Pinball is a classic favorite of mine. Good choice.

[akeley]

Kosmic Kanga - 1205
Pinball - 9,310

So, KK. Lol. It's not often when I giggle like a loon when playing a game but this is one of these cases. The whole concept, name, gameplay are simply preposterous, and scream ZX SPECTRUM BIZARENESS MAX POWAH!1!! at me. As cmal mentions you can get (sort of) used to the controls and be, ahem, in control, at times, and the other times when you are not in control are kinda fun too.

It's a bit like Flappy Bird in slow motion. Totally get why this is a Marmite game and some folk hate it. [mention]Clebin[/mention], welcome to the Why Don't They Bloody Get It? club...I feel the same about many of my faves But we need more games like it in this compo, playing only the AAA arcade ports etc can get a bit stale.

Pinball is quite good for that year, I expected worse tbh. Still, the lack of nudge can be a bit heartbreaking with these side pockets.

[cmal]

"Marmite game" - Excellent description

[Morkin]

"Marmite game" - Excellent description

Well, I suppose you could say KK has a brown, sticky consistency...

[GreenCard]

My first scores...

Kosmic "Effing" Kanga - 700
Pinball - 5,700

I have to agree with Morkin, Kosmic Kanga is horrible! Pinball is quite fun though, despite my not being very good at pinball. I'll never understand how people become consistently good at pinball (my brother has always been really good at it). For me, a game of pinball consists of using the flippers to frenziedly flail at the ball which, seemingly unavoidably, always seems to end up going down one of the outlanes. Good fun while it lasts though.

[Morkin]

I have to agree with Morkin, Kosmic Kanga is horrible!

Kosmic Kanga 450
Pinball Wizard 2710

Two truly terrible games!

I'm very sorry Morkin, I didn't realise Kosmic Kanga was that bad. I think I'd even prefer Manic Miner!

...Well, I tried to warn people, it's all on you lot, the same thing happened during that WoS Mutan Zone fiasco, we were warned but nobody listened then either and look what happened.

...[mention]RWAC[/mention] can I just say I don't want to take the mickey out of my fellow players' scores, but 450 is *pretty* bad. I started a new game and scored 480 without actually pressing any control keys. I can only assume that you had your eyes shut whilst playing...

[Juan F. Ramirez]

New Kosmic Kanga score: 1,065
Pinball: 7,140 (no change)

[clebin]

I'm glad a few people have taken to Kosmic Kanga, but more people seem to hate it! I had no idea it would be such a controversial choice but I guess you can see it from the reviews at the time.

Crash gave it 88% and a Crash Smash: "A new, lively and well implemented game, playable and addictive, good value for money, highly recommended."

Sinclair User, though gave it 5/10: "Nice graphics, shame about the game."

SU also said this, which seems to be echoed in comments here: "Controlling the kangaroo is rather haphazard and consequently zapping anything becomes a matter of luck as well as skill."

See, I don't feel that at all. I very rarely die over something that wasn't completely my fault and I find Kanga's movement quite predictable.

My tactic is to hold 'down' to do little hops along the bottom. I try to take out the cars/jeeps/crabs first. That's the only element of luck - you have to wait for Kanga to fire a low shot to get them. If you're unlucky, you won't get one and will need to go for Plan B. You need to keep an escape route in mind, like hopping on to a ledge and not leave it too late as it might require 2 bounces to get height.

Having sorted out the cars, I do bigger bounces to take out flying things, get items, or hop onto platforms over the bombs. The first bigger bounce will get the low planes, and you can build up height to get the high flying planes, although I often let them go. You can always press 'down' to stop Kanga jumping higher than you want so I tend not to jump onto the ledge when picking up items, but just touch them and come down.

I hope that it 'clicks' for a few people and they start to enjoy it. [mention]akeley[/mention] really captured what I love about it.

[smurphboy]

Kosmic Kanga: 935 - I think I'm starting to see how to play this, you need to work out what to shoot and what to avoid and leave yourself room. Still a crappy score though.

[akeley]

For me, a game of pinball consists of using the flippers to frenziedly flail at the ball which, seemingly unavoidably, always seems to end up going down one of the outlanes.

A-men.