REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

Mystical
by Fustor, Joe McAlby, Ricky, Robin
Infogrames
1991
Crash Issue 90, Jul 1991   page(s) 42

Infogrames
£11.99/£16.99

Vive le frogs' legs! Vive le chunnel! Vive le escargot! Vive le Infogrames (and their endless stream of odd continental games)! And here's one about magic and stuff.

Apparently, not all magicians are good at the old fireball-chucking larks, and it's a wizard's apprentice you play in Mystical. Incompetent isn't a strong enough word to describe your character, as thick as two very (very) short planks is nearer the mark.

While taking one of your last exams, to control a dimensional door, you mistook a cat's tail for rat's tail and ended up decimating a laboratory. The unfortunate victim of your cock-up is the Great Wizard H. All of his potions, scrolls and magical knick-knacks have disappeared into a parallel world and, to avoid being turned into an earthworm or something lust as nasty, you have to follow and retrieve them.

Funnily enough, the inhabitants of this world don't seem too chuffed to see you and launch an attack. In your defence you can pick up the formerly lost spells and potions and make good use of them (see, we'll make a wizard of you yet), and a mate can join in as a bodyguard in the shape of a Gollum (who some would say looks not unlike me).

It's a vertically scrolling affair with you and Gollum walking into the trouble that appears from the top of the screen. But beware, other than the magical objects you are powerless, and if your assailants shoot you your energy bar swiftly decreases. Gollum can help here by bouncing on the attackers' bonces.

The potions and spells vary in strength from a pathetic fireball to turning attackers into frogs, snowmen, trees, charred skeletons etc. The plan is to survive long enough to reach the end-of-level pentagram(!), although the occasional evil god appears to give you a hard time.

Infogrames have has a pretty impressive track record recently, but although Mystical has very good graphics and sonics, it b oils down to just a tarted-up blast-'em-up.

A strange aspect of the game is it automatically starts as a two-player game. You can kill Gollum off if you want to play solo but this makes your job harder.

Initially fun to play, Mystical is too repetitive to generate sufficient lastability to make it a worthy buy.

MARK [70%]


Mystical is a strange game. It plays exactly like any old shoot-'em-up but the wild and wacky graphics give it a highly original look. The spells you collect only last a few seconds and have varied effects on your adversaries, from changing them to leaping frogs to moulding them into trees! Presentation is excellent with colourful screens and a groovy tune; it's a pity the rest of Mystical is a bit monotonous. Mystical has nothing new or inventive to offer the gamesplayer and is overpriced for what it provides.
NICK [66%]

REVIEW BY: Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts

Presentation70%
Graphics75%
Sound78%
Playability60%
Addictivity63%
Overall68%
Summary: Good, entertaining action but lacks sufficient originality and variation.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

Your Sinclair Issue 68, Aug 1991   page(s) 56,57

Infogrames
£11.99 cass/£15.99 disk
Reviewer: Andy Ide

Blimey! This French game Mystical's been getting its fair share of coverage in YS, hasn't it, Spec-chums? There was the Future Shock in May, then the demo the month after - and all because Linda saw that episode of The Darling Buds Of May when they all went off to France! No. It's true!

First she stalled eating lots of croissants. And then she'd wander around the shed throwing her arms up and shouting "Sacre bleu!" for no reason at all. And finally she said if we didn't put more Froggy stuff in the mag then she'd blow garlic breath in our faces (which would have been really, really horrible because of all the crumbs that'd sort shoot out of her mouth at the same time. Eurgh!!).

So naturally we complied. And tried to find lots of French games to fill the mag up with, and failed abysmally, and only found one, so here it is (again).

You probably know the plot backwards by now. You play a sorcerer's apprentice who's ruined all his boss's spells and potions, and has to go out into the big wide world to try and replace them. It all measures up to a bird's-eye vertical-scrolling shoot-'em-up (a la Ikari Warriors) with you plodding along merrily, looking like Kojak dressed up in a habit, and picking up all the nasty litter and empty bottles that people have left behind on their picnics. And it's a jolly lucky thing they did, otherwise you'd never have any spells to shoot all the nasties with. They come at you from the top of the screen down (it's a bit like going the wrong way at rush hour), and you can use either the last spell you picked up (of which more in the box-off) or alternatively one from the stock that you've been saving up.

And that's it.

AND IT'S ALL SO PWETTY!

The novelty of Mystical isn't the gameplay - it's how the thing's presented. And coming from the French, it's no surprise that it's all pretty original (and funny). The baddies are colourful - like the little brattish schoolgirls, and nightgowns with funny faces (which are sort of pathetically trying to be ghosts!) - and the spells and potions throw up some pretty natty ways of wasting your enemy, or just stopping them dead in their tracks. There are trees that spring up to block the path, ways of turning your adversaries into frogs(!) or charred skeletons (with a very surprised look on their faces!) and a few other little tricks besides. It's all a bit of a giggle.

Of course, none of this would work if the graphics were crap, and, er, they aren't. Although they're just in plain green, the sprites are clearly designed and jog up and down the screen very nicely, and the playing area scrolls by with the minimum of stop/start jumpiness.

The trouble is that glitzy graphics and a good line in humour are fine, but only if you've got the gameplay to back them up - and Mystical hasn't. This is the kind of game you'll get some fun out of for an hour or so, and then start to nod off. Not that shooting baddies is boring, far from it. It's just that, in order to make a good game, baddies have got to come at you at the right speed and regularity, and there need to be a few hidden things along the way to surprise you, and things like that. Here it's all too straightforward and mechanical. (The two-player option's got quite a nice twist - the second character isn't just a duplicate of you, but a big Hulk-like muscleman who jumps about - but, again, the novelty looks as though it'd soon wear off.)

ABRACADABRA!

One way they've obviously tried to give it a bit of depth is by including an option to save spells. But once you've mastered how to juggle between the joystick and keyboard to store and use them, you pretty soon wonder what the point is. The trouble is that the baddies simply aren't different enough to warrant so many dozens of ways of killing them. If they all walked at different speeds (or some of them flew, or threw lots of different firebolts at you or whatever) then I could understand it. But as it stands, any attempt at strategic thought just flies out of the window. Ho hum.

And that's not all. Because finally (no, honest - it really is my last point!) it's also one of those annoying games where you gradually die by losing your energy, which I really hate. I means you can bump into baddies all the time and you don't give a fig until suddenly you keel over and die. Grrr! (But that's not really a criticism of the game, so I'd better shut up, eh?)

So - quite a list of grumbles there, eh? It's certainly far from crap (we're talking a 70°s game here, not a 50°s one). It's just a shame it hasn't got enough meat, because it could have been a corker. Infogrames are like a sort of French version of Gremlin - solid, original, and enthusiastic about the full-price Speccy market in a way that is, bit by bit, fading out of fashion. Mystical might not be up there with the likes of Sim City but it's still got the kind of cockiness and quality to make it interesting enough to have a go at, if not perhaps to pick up and buy.


REVIEW BY: Andy Ide

Blurb: FOLLOW THAT MONK! It's all very nice and green, but what's happening in that pink bit around the edges? Just follow the arrows and you'll soon find out! The more balls light up (ouch!) the more spells and potions you've collected. Hurrah! A Rock. Your energy (and the one on top belongs to player two if he ever wants to pop round and play). Your lives. And here's that sword in full swing. Blimey! Looks like he's giving one of your enemies a bit of a slap around the chops, doesn't it? You of the incredibly shiny head. A bottle of your best rasberry-flavoured potion, my good man! Here's where your potions light up. They're not much different from spells really (they're just, erm, a little easier to drink). This is where you see what spell you're using (this time it's some kind of spooky sword).

Blurb: SPOOKY SPELLS AND BITS OF PAPER! Here's a selection of the various pick-up potions (in black) and spells (in white) that you can get rid of all those smelly uglies with. Three-way fire. Sinks baddies into the ground for a screen. Sticks a tree in front of baddies so they can't walk forward. Sticks big brute chappie in front of you to protect you. Turns baddies into frogs. Turns baddies into boxes. You shoot out stars. Turns baddies into snowmen. Turns baddies into charooaled skeletons. Kills all baddies onscreen immediately. You shoot out bats.

Life Expectancy69%
Instant Appeal82%
Graphics85%
Addictiveness66%
Overall74%
Summary: Scrumptious-looking shoot-'em-up, but with not enough gameplay.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

Sinclair User Issue 114, Aug 1991   page(s) 14,15

Label: Infogrames
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £11.99 Tape, £16.99 Disk
Reviewer: Alan Dykes

Magic potions, secret scrolls and supernatural psychos for enemies. These are the sort of problems that a budding apprentice magician must learn to deal with in order to worm his way back into the affections of his master when the wayward lad has created untold havoc in the temple spell store - and what a lot of worming there is to do.

Mystical's quest involves a young trainee magician trudging around the world to collect the scrolls and phials which he naughtily scattered to the four winds just before he was due to start his final exams. If he doesn't recover these he will never qualify as a practising Magic Merchant and will probably end up down at the Job Centre looking for employment as a partly qualified Wizard. The reason The Great Wizard, his master, is so peeved is that these documents and vessels contain knowledge and potions which have taken centuries to assemble.

Mr. Magician must face a whole army of different fiends in order to complete his task. At the weak end of the baddie scale there is a relatively dumb ghoul with his head where his stomach should be, in the middle of the scale comes deceptively innocent looking Jack and Jill clones, while at the terrifying end there are viciously strong mutant bearded Monks and fast, furious Chinese mime artist impersonators from hell who can move around the turf faster than a teacher's pet in gym class. You must also avoid the many bundles of rocks and other obstacles which litter the screen and opposing characters may chuck nasty life draining balls at you.

Every cloud though, they say, has a silver lining and Mystical's is that your Magician can use the various scrolls and potions he collects to protect himself on the journey. These vary widely from Scrolls that send Magic Swords ahead to engage enemies, to Ice Torpedos that turn an enemy into a melting Frosty the Snowman or slime torpedoes that turn him into a hopping mad frog. The Phials contain potions which among other things give your man firepower, the ability to strike fear into his foes or to clone himself to confuse them. It is also possible to store up to eight spells and use them at random and he has three lives available to complete the adventure. Life force, indicated on the right of the main screen is sustained by eating burgers which are littered throughout the worlds.

There are four game scenarios, each vertically scrolling with three individual sections. To get between each section you must place the Magician over a star, marking the spot where the Great Wizard will transport you to the next danger-filled zone. This is carried out without too much ceremony, rather like Scottie beaming the Enterprise crew up without actually making a fuss about it ("hoots mon she'll nay hold together if we transport yee withoot a wee bit o' ceremony the noo').

In two player mode the second player takes over the role of a Golem (see fax strip) who hops around the screen like a springy old sack of potatoes, jumping on the various enemies that are out to stop the quest. He loses power easily and then disappears underground until his stock is replenished. To be completely honest this is a really boring role and should strictly be reserved for younger brothers and other easily coerced people.

Although graphics are plain everything is very clear which is good because there are twenty four different spells and a multitude of different enemies to contend with. All characters are instantly recognisable and scrolling is smooth. The magician and Golem are sometimes slow at responding to commands but this is not bad enough to seriously affect game enjoyment. The tune on the opening screens is neat, sounding a little bit like Barmitzvah music but the sounds during the game, although numerous, are a bit dull.

Mystical is a playable, humorous, quirky game with a very simple plot and a big world full of nasty characters and dangerous spells. If turning foes into temporary vegetables, petrified Michelin Men or char-grilled skeletoids sounds good to you then Mystical will either amuse you or bemuse you.


MATT:
Unlike Steve, I ended up in Southend and had to spend the weekend looking at the horrible architecture and people., Still, Mystical is a fun romp through magic worlds with.


STEVE:
I wanted to review Mystical because it's so exciting but I went and ended up in Miami with no ticket home. After managing a rock band for a few days I finally got the money together for the return flight. Mystical kept me going for that dark week in paradise and I can highly recommend it to anyone as a really fun game.

REVIEW BY: Alan Dykes

Blurb: WIZ FAX Until the present century Witches and Wizards were feared by ordinary people and those accused of magical practices were persecuted and tortured or burned at the stake as heretics. Perhaps the most famous Wizard of all time was the legendary Merlin, court Wizard to King Arthur and his father, Uther Pendragon. Merlin's apprentice was Mordred, Arthur's half-sister, but unlike our apprentice magician in Mystical, she was evil and cause the downfall of Arthur's Round Table. Magic and Wizardry have always been associated with Alchemy. Alchemists used potions and various combinations of metals and minerals to try and produce gold or a genuine synthetic substitute for it. Because of their greed and the highly dangerous nature of their work it was usually shrouded in secrecy. A Golem is a creature, usually made of clay and magically animated, that protects its owner in times of danger. Originating for Jewish legend and cabals the most famous Golem was created in the sixteenth centuryby a man name Rabbi Low and was a forerunner of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Monster.

Graphics83%
Sound74%
Playability90%
Lastability84%
Overall84%
Summary: An, absorbing shoot 'em up with a simple concept; frightening foes and the greatest variety of offensive and defensive spells and potions that I've ever seen. Worth a look if you want to play something a little bit different.

Award: Sinclair User Silver

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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