Princesses: are they the most useless people in the universe? Discuss. Well, erm, ‘yes!’, they are, because as soon as they get a starring role in a brand new Speccy game, they go and get captured by some evil meanie.
Take Princess Wobblechops for instance, the girlfriend of Little Beau, a new hero on the Speccy from Digital Magic Software. Princess Wobblechops, while out walking with Beau, was captured by Evil Nasty Wizard and whisked away to his mysterious kingdom. ‘Ohmygod! This looks like a daring rescue type-scenario,’ thought Beau. And, d’y’know — he was right.
So, what is this daring rescue-type quest? Well, it’s a six-level platform jaunt through the dangerous lands of the evil Wizard. The great thing about Little Beau is the cuteness of the graphics throughout: it almost has the look of a Japanese cartoon about it. Even the army of opponents are incredibly cute.
This, it transpires, is because the Wizard has cast a spell over all the wiccle cuddly animals who lived in the land, turning them into evil-minded basts and by killing them off, as you romp through the landscapes, you are releasing them from the spell (which is a rather pleasant thought).
The kingdom’s split into six islands, which make up the levels. Each level has it’s own theme and you have to work out how best to deal with each tricky problem as it comes along. Play through Iceland, Waterland, Fireland, Sandland and Windland before finally reaching the Wizard’s Castle where you confront the foul chap.
With any groovy, happenin’ platform game there are loads of interesting objects to pick up and use. Your means of defence, which is only a small dagger at the beginning, can be powered-up to a mighty axe, a meaty sword, a shield, fireballs, and small nasty critters you can chuck about to destroy foes.
In addition, there are plenty of bonus objects to help you: boots to trample on meanies, bigger-jumps shoes, balloons that enable you to float around, and heaps more!
There really is so much packed into Little Beau (you should see the amount of characters planned for inclusion!), the lastability’s going to be pretty high! And, apart from mentioning there are a couple of mini sub-games (accessed from the small coin-op machines scattered about the play area), that’s about all there’s room for in this preview! Review very soon.