Edd the Duck 2 logo

Zeppelin * £9.99
Not previously reviewed

Meet Calamity Jane. Also meet Disastrous Deirdre and Accident-Prone Angie. Meet the, er, unique style of Edd the Duck 2. Yes, it's the Wild West, and Edd is wandering around (being controlled by you) as he searches for, well, let's be honest; he's searching for invulnerability shields, extra custard pies to throw at baddies and bonus lives.

This is a platformer in which you must explore, killing (well, splatting) everybody you meet. The graphics show clearly that budget games can look as good if not better than full-pricers; this is really impressive-looking stuff from Zeppelin.

Of course, everything is themed around the idealised Wild West setting, so don't expect Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, but rather The Lone Ranger and other historically-blurred views.

It's fun, it's pretty challenging, especially if you close one eye as you play, and you'll enjoy it a great deal. And, for once, it'll appeal to serious gamesplayers rather than just children who are fans of fandabidozi graphics (sorry).

Anyway, Edd the Duck 2 is strongly recommended. The BBC's Edd puppet, however, can go and boil his head.



Edd the Duck 2 logo

Edd, die Ente ist wieder da! Obwohl: Wahrscheinlich ist es eh niemand aufgefallen, daß sich Zeppelins Plattformhupfer nach seinem ersten Auftritt vor drei Jahren nicht mehr am Amiga blicken ließ...

Spielerisch darf man sich vom Budget-Erpel nichts Neues erwarten, denn das Gamedesign stammt noch aus der Zeit, als Jump & Runs durch ihre pure Existenz das Publikum begeistern könnten.

Wie schon tausendmal zuvor (und besser) erlebt, muß man mit einer Figur, die entfernt an die Disney- Drillinge Tick, Trick und Track erinnert, durch gegner verseuchte Plattformlandschaften laufen und springen.

Die teilweise recht kuriös gezeichneten Feinde (Hüte, Zängen, Quallen...) bewegen sich in dem Wildwest-Szenario auf vorgegebenen Bahnen und können nur durch die begrenzt vorratigen Sahnetorten gestoppt werden, mit denen Edd auf Knopfdruck um sich wirft.

Gelegentlich liegen am Wegesrand auch zusätzliche Kalorienbomben und Heldenleben sowie Schützschilde zur Abholung bereit, um den natürlichen Sammeltrieb der Ente zu befriedigen.

Soviel zum Gameplay, und recht viel mehr laßt sich leider uber das ganze Spiel nicht sagen:

Die Grafik ist schön bunt und ordentlich animiert, aber letztlich halt Dützendware; die Begleit-FX klingen ziemlich dünn, und bei der Düdelmusik ist man froh, daß sie nur selten zu hören ist - immerhin funktioniert die Sticksteuerung nach gewisser Eingewöhnung einwandfrei.

Spielstände lässen sich nicht abspeichern, die Highscoreliste fehlt gleich ganz. Einen Sonderpreis hat sich hingegen die Hintergrundstory verdient, sie ist eindeutig die wirrste der gesamten Computerspielgeschichte! Aber selbst dieses Kleinod rettet das Game nicht mehr über die 50-Prozent-Hurde... (md)



Edd the Duck 2 logo

Look, what the hell's going on here? It's not as if we expect very much from budget games in the way of plot depth or character exploration, but this is just insulting. On the crappy little bit of folded paper that accompanies the disk, you get a couple of paragraphs of insipid puns about a Wild West saloon. Then there's a little diagram what the joystick does. And that's it. Like, sorry if I'm being picky here, but WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE ACTUALLY SODDING WELL DOING?

Looking to the game for help proves equally fruitless - it throws you straight into the (and I use this term loosely) action, which is stodgy, slightly-animated, almost-soundless scrolling platformy stuff where you throw custard pies at some baddies.

Reaching the exit of the first level is easy, but you can't go out of it until experimenting, you pick up a brown lump that might be a hat of some sort. Or it might not. Whichever, why it lets you go through the exit is never satisfactorily explored. Level two brings you, er, some more of exactly the same, i.e. more pitiful dross against a strikingly similar backdrop, and proceedings continue in the same vein for as long as you can stand it - in m case, about four minutes.

Really, I can't imagine how anyone, having secured such an, er, prestigious licence, could have written a game to go with it in a more desultory, slapdash, shoddy manner. I know it's only eight quid and all that, but I haven't seen a game this awful in a very long time. I'd rather spend the rest of my life locked in a room with Andi Peters and all the presenters of The Disney Club than play it again.



Edd the Duck 2 logo

ZEPPELIN OUT NOW £9.99

I don't know about you, but I find Andi peters' sidekick to be one of the most irritating things ever to grace my TV, and the thought of two games based on the same character is enough to send shivers down my spine.

But still I sit here playing it, and I have to admit that, even with my low expectations, I was disappointed. With the exception that the main character is a duck, this game has almost nothing to do with the inbred son of Sweep from the Sooty show.

Surely the most obvious thing to do would be to sample his kazoo voice, but no. This Edd quacks.

The game falls somewhere between Treasure Island Dizzy and Fantasy World Dizzy, with a little Dizzy thrown in for good measure.

In short, it is a scrolling platform game with attempted cute graphics and very little in the way of lasting gameplay.

As Edd you must travel through the Wild West in your best cowboy outfit, avoiding such terrors as large cowboy hats and electric sparks that travel up and down telegraph wires.

Most of this is done by jumping, although you can use your gun to shoot down the opposition. Hang on a moment - Edd the Duck with a gun? Surely not! Well, OK then, it is not a real gun. All this weapon is capable of firing are custard pies which merely stun the enemy for a short period of time.

Everything about this game reeks of budget quality. Fine if you want a five-minute platform game, but there are so many better examples of the genre about.