Review by ZX KNIGHT on 05 Apr 2012 (Rating: 5)
The object of the game is simply to collect all the objects on any given level. A simple premise made brilliant by the presence of your 'alter ego', a ghost who mirrors your every move without regard for platforms or enemies. The objects, essentially throbbing pixels, are scattered across every level. The animation of the figures is smooth and the graphics are pleasantly colourful while avoiding colour clash; in this they are reminiscient of the best of the Spectrum games.
To help you in every level you can swap positions with your alter ego a limited number of times, allowing you to reach areas that would otherwise be unattainable. However, your alter ego also has objects to collect forcing the player to consider not just his own position but also that of his alter ego. Neither character can pick up the objects intended for their alter ego, meaning you have to plan your route through every level carefully. The lack of a save or password option for every level means playing it on anything other than an emulator could end up a frustrating experience as you will use trial and error to work out the correct path through the levels.
What is refreshing about Alter Ego is that it hasn't come from the usual suspects of the Spectrum homebrew scene, such as the excellent Jonathan Cauldwell (who did Utter Tripe, reviewed below) or the Mojon Twins, but is actually only the second effort by Retro Souls for the platform. With a bit of luck, hopefully it'll be followed by many more efforts of equally high quality.
Amazingly, it has already been ported to the NES by a fan of the game. Although their name suggests Retro Souls aren't too interested in modern systems, the game deserves a wider audience and I'd like to see it developed for the mobile and handheld market. Given the existence of a legal Spectrum emulator on the iPhone perhaps it could be released through future updates of that. Nonetheless if you own a PC you should download an emulator and give it a try.
There doesn't seem to be any storyline to the game, which is not strictly necessary given the style but is something that always irks me a little. Nonetheless, Alter Ego is a brilliantly realised puzzle platformer for the Spectrum and would have been easily worthy of a commercial release back in the 1980s.
You can download Alter Ego for free at World of Spectrum and watch a video of it in action on Youtube.
Taken from: http://zombiesatemyxbox.com/2011/10/05/zx-spectrum-games-of-2011-reviews/
2011 RetroSouls (Russia)
by Denis Grachev and Shiru
A great example of mixing an only idea with fresh new one's. If you like action platform games that make you think, than this is for you.
Not an easy game however, and you can experience that right from level 2.
The only letdown I spotted which annoyed me, is the kind of boring backgrounds which start fine but get repetitive.
A very clever (and very tricky) puzzler. The premise is simple enough, collect all the objects while avoiding the nasties. Pressing fire lets you swap places with your invincible alter ego, although you can only do this a limited number of times per level.
