Most bizarre theme for a Speccy game?

[AndyC]

It makes perfect sense. He was forced to implement this idea in a very short time, that had to look impressive for a couple minutes on TV but knowing that nobody would ever play it. Therefore a simple repetitive isometric 3D game was a perfect solution.

I assume they already had some sort of crap game that was never going to sell very well, which just got reskinned into whatever vaguely fit the description the kid was asking for in the hopes that publicity on TV would sell a few copies.

[Joefish]

I wonder if 'Ninja Grannies' was inspired by a sketch I remember seeing someone had sent in to YS. It depicted (as the editor commented) 'Mrs. Brady, Old Lady' from Viz whacking some thugs with her handbag in a scene reminiscent of the cover of Vigilante, with the title altered to read 'VigilAuntie'.

Although there was a spate of 'Ninja' fad kids' movies at the time too, partly fuelled by the explosion of Ninja Turtles toys, cartoons etc.

[worcestersource]

Battle of the Toothpaste Tubes by K-Tel was an odd take on a shoot ‘em up!

Terrible game that I bought off a market stand for a quid.

Steve

[XTM]

I wonder if 'Ninja Grannies' was inspired by a sketch I remember seeing someone had sent in to YS. It depicted (as the editor commented) 'Mrs. Brady, Old Lady' from Viz whacking some thugs with her handbag in a scene reminiscent of the cover of Vigilante, with the title altered to read 'VigilAuntie'.

Although there was a spate of 'Ninja' fad kids' movies at the time too, partly fuelled by the explosion of Ninja Turtles toys, cartoons etc.

VigilAuntie is an awesome title (it makes me think of the Doodlebugs thread). Could be a prequel to Aunt Attack

About the Ninja Turtles toys/cartoons, would have been funny if the stupid rename we got in Europe had resulted in game titles with Hero rather than Ninja ... like BMX Hero, Hero Scooter Simulator, Hero Master ... sounds naff, eh

[Morkin]

"Hero Hamster" might work. Sounds like it could be a 70s UK cartoon. If it isn't already.

[deanysoft]

I wonder if 'Ninja Grannies' was inspired by a sketch I remember seeing someone had sent in to YS.

No. We'd code all day on stuff we were supposed to do but after hours we'd do anything we liked and one of us decided a fighting game would be good fun to do. Somehow we settled on 'Grannies' as it was a fun idea. We didn't think it as one of those 'Ninja *blah*' games. We didn't like that sort of thing - there seemed to be endless '<something or other> Construction Kit' games too. An old colleague, Richard Stevenson coded BMX Ninja - Alternative was a bit of a sausage machine, quick turn around, fast coded and released games, they probably jumped on the Ninja bandwagon with that (Alternative, not RS)

[deanysoft]

And as for Gilbert? gawd - what a pain that one was.

[zxbruno]

I don’t remember the name of the games, only that they seemed odd at the time:

-Game where you pickup babies
-Game where you eliminate(?) babies
-Game where you use a toothbrush to prevent cavities, with mixed results
-Game where you control a giant hand and grab bugs

[XTM]

An old colleague, Richard Stevenson coded BMX Ninja - Alternative was a bit of a sausage machine, quick turn around, fast coded and released games, they probably jumped on the Ninja bandwagon with that (Alternative, not RS)

Great post! Are you still in contact with him? Would be funny to know his reaction to the Ashens video, and to know who came up with the ridiculous plot - was it him, or some of the "bosses" as in the video?

[Lee Bee]

-Game where you control a giant hand and grab bugs

Exterminator

[deanysoft]

Great post! Are you still in contact with him? Would be funny to know his reaction to the Ashens video, and to know who came up with the ridiculous plot - was it him, or some of the "bosses" as in the video?

I'm in occasional contact, he's usually busy. I wouldn't think he'd be bothered about the video (I've just had a quick zip through it myself). It's really easy to be a critic. I'm not 100% sure about Bizarre's relationship with Alternative back then but with us at Clockwize, Alternative would have an idea, sometimes it might be just a title or a licence, and we were tasked with designing a game. We'd discuss the design a little with Alternative and we'd get the go ahead. It was work. If the games were sometimes daft or a bit cheesy, well so be it. It paid the bills.

[Arcachnar]

Among the others:
- Twister, Mother of Charlotte mostly because of the name: Charlotte was a replacement for "harlots" as they recognized that this kind of words wouldn't be suitable for a game which potentially could be played by kids, feat. some explicit whipping and a lot of demoniac symbolism anyway

Like in "Charlotte the Harlot"?

Bizarre? Well....the games in Can of Worms are pretty much like that.