COMMUNIST Robin of the Wood from Odin Computer Graphics should not be confused with Robin of Sherwood by Adventure International. The latter is an adventure, the former - a multi screen Ultimate-style game. Very pretty it is too, with finely detailed graphics and (on the Spectrum version) about the best sound effects you could reasonably expect. The central figures are neatly animated - watch out, in particular, for the way Robin smashes baddies over the head with his stave ... vicious stuff. The plot basically has you as Robin hunting around the wood for quivers of arrows and other objects which will help you gain your place at the archery tournament where lots of really nice things happen to the winner. Getting there involves witches that look rather like Valeria from the Addams family and an old Ent, who is in charge of three magic arrows. I always thought an old Ent was standard showbusiness shorthand for someone forced through ill luck to do the summer season at Rhyl, but apparently this one is a sort of mystic communist who redistributes cash to the poor. He wants paying, anyway. Controls are kept to a minimum. and it is possible to play the game with just a joystick, though it's a while before you realise there is no command to pick up and drop things and all those processes happen automatically. Playing the game for a while I began to find it a little slow, but that may simply be a matter of not having succeeded very far into it. Anyway it's good to look at and gets my vote for the greenest game yet released. PopularComputingWeekly |