Reviews

Ostensibly a sequel to Ocean's earlier unlicensed Kong, this is another shameless ripoff of an arcade game. This time it's Mr Do's Wild Ride that gets the treatment.

The basic idea is that you've got to run along a rollercoaster to rescue a damsel in distress, whilst dodging the cars coming down at you by sneaking up conveniently placed ladders.

Despite the combined efforts of Nigel "Chuckie Egg" Alderton and Jonathan "Pud Pud" Smith, it's not a particularly great game to play. climbing onto a ladder requires precisely the same knack as Chuckie Egg and, that's pretty much all there is to the game. Get on a ladder, wait for a gap and run along to the next one; once you've got that sorted you'll zip through all four screens in no time. You'll then get to go through the same levels with additional hazards, but about all that means is that the gaps are shorter and you've got to wait longer between them.

Graphically, it's not too bad with some pretty backgrounds and smooth moving sprites; your character even has an absurdly large hat, again reminiscent of Chuckie Egg. However, that's not enough to save what is a rather dull game.

1984 Ocean Software (UK)
by Nigel Alderton, Jonathan Smith and F. D. Thorpe (loading screen)

With a team of programmers like this it had to be good.
Much better than the first Kong and with a different layout, I think it is one of the best platform games around that time.
Sure it's a Mr. Do! unofficial conversion, but who gives a crap, it's good and that's what matters.
The player character movement is excellent, may seem hard to make turns at first but after a few plays you get the hang of it. The graphics are quirky and funny. And I just love the gameplay, very addictive, very playable and lots of fun.

Just as the earlier game, which was a (shockingly bad) rip-off of Donkey Kong, KSB is another "unofficial" conversion - this time of a much lesser known coin-op, Mr Do!'s Wild Ride. The aim is to run through the fairground tracks avoiding obstacles, mainly cars going around.

Although the game looks much better than the appalling Kong, it's still not good - the action is so straightforward that playing looks more like an exercise in keypress. KSB is monotonous, shallow and unexciting.

The sequel to Kong is a Mr. Do! Spectrum conversion by Nigel Alderton and Joffa Smith. A very addictive plattform game with a nice movement. The loading screen is another cool F. David Thorpe's work.