Spellbound
| Developer: WJS Design | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Psyclapse | Sound: |
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| Year: 1990 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Platformer | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 2 simultaneous | Rating: |
3/10 | |
Not to be confused with Spell Bound (1988), nor Spellbound! (1991).
I saw screenshots of the game, I fancied giving it a go. Then I saw the publisher’s name, I fancied running away. Psyclapse was the sub-brand used by Psygnosis to publish “budget” titles (not necessarily cheap) that they didn’t particularly want to own up to. Not that I feel delirious enthusiasm every time I unearth a Psygnosis game…
The storyline is earth-shattering: you play an elf, apprentice magician, on his way to rescue his master and his cat, kidnapped by a nasty … nasty villain. This perilous quest takes you through gloomy worlds via suspended walkways, connected by rickety lifts. You throw pebbles at monsters, collect keys, open chests, find other items (bombs and crystals) to open two types of barriers. Numerous back-and-forth trips are necessary, since you can only carry one object at a time (hence the manual’s insistence on promoting two-player mode).
The monsters are sometimes indistinguishable from the scenery, and avoiding them often borders on miraculous. The handling is infuriating, particularly for jumping. I never actually understood how to jump from an elevator; this action seems impossible. This detail makes me seriously doubt the feasibility of certain levels. I didn’t have the courage to verify. Feel free to give it a go and prove me wrong. Best of luck, sincerely. Finally, to complement this dodgy handling, falls cause health loss, and only one life is granted.
In theory, you wield magical energy (manna, with two n’s) to cast spells (different sorts of projectiles, selectable with keys 1 to 6). In practice, they work when they jolly well feel like it, and I still haven’t understood according to what logic. As for the bomb, it’s placed by pressing the “left Amiga” key (“left Windows” on emulator).
But I’m willing to try being positive, that would be a novel exercise for me. So then, the backgrounds are rather charming (in their macabre style), the game offers a two-player mode (useful, even vital), no time limit, screen scrolling in both directions, help, get me out of here, and a password system…
Amusing little anecdote: the final password only serves to display the ending scene. A quirk I’ve never encountered elsewhere.
Another hilarious anecdote? Joystick magazine awarded this game the very precise score of 91% in its November 1990 issue (source: Abandonware-magazines). I quote: “no screwing around, it slaps hard, it’s precise and it’s lmao”. Ah, how we miss the gaming press!
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