| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ THE WILLOW PATTERN (c) FIREBIRD ★ |
Amstrad Action |
What a genteel name for a game based on a plate and featuring lots of sword-throwing Samurai. The plate in question is a famous design of a touching tale of oriental romance which you are going to re-enact. The Samurai are Firebird's own contribution to make the handsome young lovers' task in eloping with his beloved princess that much harder. The story on the plate is that the two. lovers have been forbidden to meet by the princess's father, the King. They arrange a secret meeting place under a tree and try to escape across a bridge to a waiting boat. The girl's father chases after them but the gods, in a happy mood, turn them into birds and they fly away. The main part of the game centres on the boy's attempts to reach the princess through a maze guarded by Samurai warriors. Having found her he has to get to the boat with her while her incensed father pursues you in search of vengeance. The warriors are positioned strategically across sections of the maze, making passage impossible. So you have to kill them using swords that you can hurl at them. The problem is they can also throw swords and you've only got 5 lives. The warriors stand still, swinging their swords, and sometimes if you get too close they will throw a sword at you. If you can outrun the sword it will fall to the floor and enable the boy to pick it up and throw it himself. Running into the warriors also kills the boy so careful progress is needed. Swords are also found lying around on their own but they all need to be used carefully.
The number of warriors and swords are such that you have to cautiously move through the maze only using a sword when necessary and not wasting any of them. Otherwise the boy could be left without a weapon and unable to progress any further through the game. The other main source of danger is the bridges that sometimes cross the maze paths. When you run onto one of these the view switches from the overview of the maze to a side view of a bridge. Three samurai are crouched on the bridge reaching down to try to grab you as you leap across stepping stones in a river. A bad jump or getting caught will plunge the boy into the river, losing a life. The princess is located in the inner reaches of the maze and to get to her will take all your skills. On the way gems, fruit and other objects can be picked up and one crucial object that will open up the section of the maze containing the princess. Once the boy has reached her he has to get to a boat on the outside of the maze while the father is chasing him. Get caught and it's all over. GOOD NEWS:
BAD NEWS:
BW, AA
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Page créée en 210 millisecondes et consultée 3757 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
