Head over Heels
| Developer: N/A | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Ocean | Sound: |
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| Year: 1991 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Puzzle-platformer | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
7/10 | |
Combien pour ce chien dans la vitrine
Ce joli p’tit chien jaune et blanc
Combien pour ce chien dans la vitrine
Qui penche la tête en frétillant
It’s the turn of the adaptation of the game bearing the same name, which enjoyed great success in 1987 on the ZX Spectrum (and the Amstrad CPC, and the Commodore 64). It’s a sort of 3D isometric maze game, reminiscent of Knight Lore (ZX Spectrum, 1984).
You get two cute little characters who look vaguely like a dog and a cat, going by the names of Head and Heels. These two creatures are space spies who’ve been captured and separated. The game’s objective? To make them work together so they can escape, steal five crowns scattered across different worlds, and overthrow a tyrannical empire. You know, the usual stuff.
Head (the dog-like one) can jump high and even adjust its trajectory mid-air. Heels (the cat-like one) is faster and boasts the enviable ability to pick up random junk and drop it wherever needed, turning it into makeshift platforms. You can switch between the two characters at any time, and if you manage to reunite them, you can “fuse” them by stacking Head on Heels, combining their powers.
The controls:
- “fire” (controller button): jump
- “F1”: switch characters
- “F3”: pick up an object that can serve as a platform (after acquiring a bag—which looks more like a coin purse)
- “F5”: pick up an object and jump simultaneously
- “Space”: hurl donuts at an enemy to paralyse them (once you’ve found the box of donuts and the “donut launcher”, which looks suspiciously like a foghorn)
A word of advice: keep the jump button pressed until you land, or you’ll find yourself plunging into the abyss if the platform collapses beneath your paws.
I have a soft spot for this game’s old-fashioned charm. The puzzles are inventive and not excessively frustrating (a little frustration keeps you sharp). Best of all, there’s no time limit whatsoever!
Note the implementation of “save points”, represented by “reincarnation fish”. Once collected, these allow you to respawn at that location after losing all your lives (at least until you reboot the computer).
Patience, persistence, and note-taking are very much the order of the day!
More screenshots: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Two free remakes were released for PC: Retrospec (2004) and headoverheels2.com (2010).
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