Hoist the mam sail and scrub them there decks. Poor cabin boy. Jim, doesn't half get some stick from captain Blackish — Red Beard, a slave driving son of a gun if ever there were. But no more, Jim now realises that there are better things in life than being the ships dogs-body and has decided to take all the booty for himself.   
You control Jim who must make his way around the Black Galleon's twenty holds collecting all the various items of treasures which are automatically picked up as he walks over them. Unfortunately some of the booty is locked behind doors whose keys must also be picked up by walking into them. Opening doors will lead to other keys. Be wary as some of the booty is booby trapped so that when you pick it up a bomb will appear and nifty foot work is needed to avoid the explosion. Once a screen has been cleared you can then move onto the next screen by placing Jim in front of a forward facing door and pressing the fire button. | Not a lot to say about BOOTY, a nice colourful budget game on Firebird's Silver label that should sell well. The only problem I could find is that the collision detection is a bit Iffy at times, just when you think you've dodged the nasty you find yourself dead. Having said that this can be easy avoided by giving yourself plenty of time -all a case of experience. The screens with the moving platforms proved slightly tricky at first but like all the other screens, once mastered they can easily be done again. |
When you have collected all the booty from the Galleon's holds, you are given 45 seconds to locate the Bronze key to the next pile of booty. Clearing all the booty a second and third time causes a search for the Silver and Gold keys, each increasing the games speed and hazards. As well as the booby traps. Jim must face other deadly dangers such as the one of the captain's parrots or a ship's rat. Encounters with either of these will result in the loss of one of your three lives. Ghost pirates wander around the various screens and collision with these will have much the same effect. Some screens have trap doors and moving platforms, one slip and poor Jim comes to an untimely death. There, there Jim lad — a cabin boy's life is never dull. - Presentation 70% : Nice options screen, uncomplicated controls.
- Graphics 65% : Become slow and distorted at times.
- Sound 45% : Nice tune all the way through, minimal FX.
- Playability 69% : Good timing needed in places to avoid the nasties.
- Addictive Qualities 63% : It grows on you.
- Value for money 70% : Well worth two quid.
- Overall 66% : Good playability, good fun. a good game!
| A great Speccy game in it's time, some two years ago. I'm pleased to see that it still retains it's attraction. BOOTY is more of a logic puzzle than any sort of action game, especially when you need to work out how to get to certain keys which may appear elusive. Once you've got the routes mapped it shouldn't be too difficult to get further into the game without going kaboom too many times — which seems to be happening to me quite a bit... |
AMTIX |
