Faster than a speeding fillet

Typhoon Thompson logo

OH Great, a sailing game. I just love sailing games (says he with just a hing of sarcasm). But what is this on the back of the box? "You have heard it all before - amazing graphics, stunning 3D effects...". Well they are right there, I certainly have heard it all before. Several times. Several times today, in fact. And it is still early. Ah, but perhaps this is not about sailing. And perhaps the blurb on the back is actually telling the truth? What makes me suspect this? Could it be the rather excellent opening animations and the cutesy tune? Yes, I think it could. Well I never, perhaps I am going to enjoy this game after all.

Like all the best games, Typhoon Thompson's plot is minimal, and what little there is does not make sense. From what I can discover, TT must save the day by rescuing a baby abducted by some water spirits. The mysterious Spirit Guardians will aid you in your quest, if you in turn help them join the local freemasons by collecting various objects, such as daggers, hammers and balloons. They give you four Jet Sleds in which to explore the ocean planet and an extra life for every Masonic item you collect. The mouse-driven sleds are of the highly manoeuvrable variety, which for a change does not mean darn difficult to control but, instead, quite easy and fun to play with.

So off you set from the home island toward the first island village. The village consists of seven islands, each containing a number of flyers. The flyers come in several brands, each with distinguishing characterstics and weapons. They are the Bad Guys, and will quite happily do something nasty to you, whether it is trapping you in a bubble, making your sled go purple and explode, or just bumping you off into the sea.

You get your own back on the flyers by shooting them with the weapons supplied by the guardians, nice chaps. Once the flyers have been hit, the occupants - the sprites - are thrown clear of the wreckage and splash around stunned in the water.

No matter how many times you stun them, the sprites cannot be destroyed and must always be collected. Must be hard wear sprites. Once all the island occupants have been gathered up you are presented with the fabulous treasure (a balloon) and start on the next island. Each island gets trickier, with more and more sprites released from the even more abundant flyers. By the time you have reached the third of the four islands, the number of creatures flailing around in the ocean slows things down a trifle. Not enough to interfere with the gameplay, mind you.

Sound is disappointing. Effects are a little thin at times, rather reminiscent of the bad old days of AY sound chips (the one the ST uses).
The animation, however, is very well executed, humorous and fun to watch. Clearly a lot of efforst was spent here. At the expense of the gameplay? No, I do not think so. The plot is simple, but that is part of the game: Simple and addictive.


Typhoon Thompson logo

BRODERBUND/DOMARK £24.99 * Joystick and Keyboard

The year is 2124 and men have boldly gone where no man has gone before, out into the far reaches of space. Even passenger craft make trips to distant galaxies. But it pays not to be too blasé about space travel where the ocean planet of Aguar, in the Omega sector, is concerned.

Aguar was the last known location of intergalactic Flight 396, which left a faint signal as hope of survivors. Many trips have been made to Aguar to find the survivors, but all have been destroyed by the mischievous and deadly sea-sprites. Those that managed any communication told of a single child held prisoner by the sprites and of the strange sprite guardians that tried to help them rescue the child (without much success).

You play Typhoon Thompson (no relation), a reluctant hero who has been tricked into attempting a rescue. Riding a small Jet-Sled and armed initially with a laser cannon, you must tempt the sprite flyers out of their islands, blast them and pick them out of the water before they can swim back to safety. Once all the sprites have been caught you can hold them hostage until the head sprite of the village gives up one of the four artefacts you need to rescue the baby. Returning the artefacts to the spirits gives you another weapon to help you defeat the sprites, such as scatter bombs, sprite magnets or freeze-bombs.

Once you have all four artefacts, you can take on the sprite-flyers of the last village before freeing the child.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Despite their diminutive appearance the graphics are full of character and humour. Every object and action in the game has such realistic animation, as well as a few additional touches to add a little extra polish.

The start sequences and end-of-level scenes are extremely funny, especially if your sense of humour is a bit on the silly side! The 3D motion and scrolling is also excellent, both smooth and effective, giving a true feeling of skipping over the sea's surface. The sound consists of a few warbling ditties and pings which, while fitting the game very well, won't exactly set the Amiga music enthusiast's pulse racing.

LASTING INTEREST

Every time you play the game the animation sequences are altered, so that it is like an ever-changing slapstick cartoon. Once the novely of the cute animation has worn off, you find a thoroughly playable action game which screams out for more than its fair share of attention. The game is a little easy to complete after practice, but it is such a joy to play that you will be unable to tear yourself away from the machine until you do!

JUDGEMENT

Typhoon Thompson is one of a rare breed - an original and playable arcade game. The game has more feel and atmosphere than many current coin-ops and film tie-ins - mainly because it is written with humour and entertainment in mind, rather than just trying to get you to put another 10p piece in the slot. If you would like a change and have a fun sense of humour, then give Typhoon Thompson a 'spin'.


Typhoon Thompson logo

Mit einem Jahr Verspätung dürfen nun endlich auch wir Amigianer den Meeresplaneten Aguar abgrasen: in einem lustigen Action-Game mit 3D-Grafik und origineller Spielidee.

Aufgrund schwacher Notsignale steht zu befürchten, daß einige Kids in die Gefangenschaft von Seekobolden geraten sind. Für die Befreiungs-aktion ist die Beschaffung von vier Gegenständen unerläßlich - und das auf hoher See!

Also schwingt man sich an Bord eines niedlichen Schlauch-boots mit Düsenantrieb und Laserkanone (was es nicht alles gibt!) und zerballert kleine Inseln, die auf dem Wasser ragen. Jeder Treffer lockt einen Seekobold heraus, den man nun einsammeln sollte. Gar nicht so leicht: Die kleinen Kerle hocken nämlich in bewaffneten Booten, die man ihnen zuerst unter dem Hintern wegschießen muß!

Sind alle Kobolde eines Inseldorfes gekidnappt, werden die Gefangenen gegen einen der begehrten Gegenstände ausgetauscht, und die Jagd geht einen Level höher weiter, wo oft mehrere der Teufelchen in einem Gefährt sitzen. Außerdem winkt als Belohnung eine technische Verbesserung am eigenen Gummi-Gefährt.

Trotz des simplen Spielprinzips macht Typhoon Thompson höllisch Spaß, was nicht zuletzt an der irrewitzigen Animation der Spielfiguren und der intelligenten Maussteuerung liegt. Schade nur, daß es bis auf die piepsige Titelmelodie während des Spiels keine Musikuntermalung gibt. Sei's drum: Die feucht-fröhliche Rettungsaktion macht einfach Laune!
(C. Borgmeier)



Typhoon Thompson logo CU Amiga Screen Star

Domark/Broderbund
Price: £19.99

This is a cute, funny, sickeningly addictive, all round nice game. Winner of many accolades, the ST version could not put a foot wrong. Typhoon Thompson and the Amiga will surely go the same way. The opening sequence shows Thompson being dumped unceremoniously out of a spacecraft and onto a Jet-Sled. His mission is to find a shipwrecked child. From out of nowhere two mysterious spirit guardians appear, give him a mysterious power and a few orders and then vanish.

The object of the game is to collect four items from the Sprite Guardians who will then help you to recover the lost child. But first you have to find a dagger that is stored inside the white treasury dome. Naturally there is a catch. Each of the surrounding islands contains Sea Sprites and their outlandish craft. Before the dagger can be removed from the dome these nasties need to be dealt with. Removing the sprites from the islands is easy enough, just let loose a laser salvo to shake them up. When their craft start buzzing around it is just a matter of picking them off. But that is not quite the end of it.

Once a Sprite's ship has been obliterated the creatures lie bobbing around in the ocean. Then it is just a matter of gathering the Sprites up into a sack before they regain consciousness. After each one has been collected a rather annoyed little creature emerges from the treasury dome, jumps around, goes back inside and gives up the object he is guarding.

Probably the most instantly irritating thing about Typhoon Thompson is the way the Jet-Sled is controlled. Mouse only, it requires a combination of left/right jabs, buttons and lots of concentration. It is one of those skills which develop slowly, but it will take a long time to master it.

Typhoon Thompson features several short sequences outlining the plot of the game, as well as a dazzling amount of different movements executed by the Jet-Sled and its pilot. Some bleating sound effects are mingled with some that are slightly more pleasant. My only worry concerns the lastability of the game. I'd almost completed the third level after only a couple of hours, and I have a sneaky suspicion that there are only five in total.
Life jackets aside, Typhoon Thompson is a great little game that deserves all the credit it gets.


Typhoon Thompson logo

Domark/Broderbund, Amiga £19.99

Sea spirits are the cutest things in the known universe. Living on groups of tiny islands on the planet Aguar, they're yellow furry things that can swim like dolphins - and turn bright red with popping eyeballs when they're getting angry. What's more they're incredibly possessive little varmints, so when Flight 396 goes down over the planet we know we've got trouble. The only survivor of the crash is a human child.

As the incredibly famous Typhoon Thompson you're dropped on Aguar in your Jet-Sled. After visiting the Spirit Guardians (who give you an extra live and three extra Jet-Sleds) you set off to find the first of four magical artifacts which need to be collected before you can rescue the infant. Each artifact is lovingly stored in a Treasury Dome located at the centre of an island village. To get the object you must first kidnap all the sprites in the village.

To lure a Sprite out, you merely need to blast its home (there are six per village) with your laser cannon. The enraged Sprite will then leap into its Flyer and come zooming after you. Flyers range from Bumpers (which merely push you around) to Suckers (which love eating Jet-Sleds) and Zappers (which last both Sled and you to atoms!). Shoot a Flyer and a dazed Sprite will fall into the ocean, utterly helpless for a short while so you can scoop it up into your sack. Take too long though, and it'll start swimming back home.

On higher levels there are up to three Sprites in each island home, and if you let just one get home three are restored to that island! Fortunately on the more advanced missions you're given additional weapons such as Freeze and Scatter Bombs.

Once you've collected all the Sprites you must go to the Treasure Dome in the hope of swapping them for the magical artifact.


Robin Hogg I'll get the bad news out of the way first and say that Typhoon Thompson is a little easy to get through but then some people find it tough (Plug of the Month: see my tips on it in this very issue!). On the positive side it's such a rewarding and utterly charming game to play with a fabulous ending that this 'fault' can be forgiven. As expected, programmer Dan Gorlin's eye for superlative character detail is shown off to the full with this fun game. The animation of the Treasurer Sprite getting angry never fails to draw a smile whenever I see it. If anything, the tune is a little slow paced but works well in its own simple way - the stereo effect is great through a Hi-Fi. I hope this is just the first of a series of 'Typhoon' games.
Scorelord Typhoon features the kind of cuteness that usually has me reaching for the sick bag, but it's all so incredibly well done even I was taken aback. The quality of the animation on the tiny sprites matches anything seen in Space Ace, minus the tedious disk accessing, plus a superb game. Zooming around in the Jet-Sled and blasting the cutesy Sprite critters is great fun, while the various types of Flyers all present their own challenge.