My first ever Anco game!
Anco's Death Trap was released in 1990 and reminds me of various platformers, like
Horror Zombies From The Crypt with a hint of
Prince Of Persia and (maybe) Ricky Dangerous. The gruesome cover is nothing short of tremendous!
[Consider this a preview] We begin the adventure in a labyrinth of horror and encounter traps, like falling blocks, poisonous chests, spikes, and more. Each map is incredible but it's easy to lose your bearing so I doodled myself a basic route - which helped a bunch. Puzzles are simple, like flipping a switch to unlock a door but this might mean backtracking and sometimes you're even required to walk the long way around. Not easy, when you're under constant attack.
Okay, that's enough yapping. Let's view a couple of screenshots...
The graphics are absolutely superb with gorgeous tones used!
Right, stop! There's a switch... wanna risk pulling that thing?
It's all about the killing!
Yes, evil creatures inhabit this dungeon and will annoyingly appear at the most inconvenient times. They're all relentless so watch out for ghosts who materialise from out of thin air, jumping frogs, bats that swoop in and drop rocks, Egyptian wizards, and many others. I must say, I love the stripy grabbing hands before the culprit appears to chase you!!
Controls are responsive and keep up with the demands of our adventurer. However, the tighter jumps can be a difficult as you need to tiptoe right to the very end of a platform, which is difficult when constantly chased by creatures! Oddly, our direction cannot be altered during the jump, which can be awkward.
We're armed with a pathetic blade but this can be upgraded with potions - I love the fireball that grants the ability to kill something before it gets close. These potions can be used to conjure spells, recover health, etc. The trouble is exploration is vague with lots of backtracking and guesswork. If there was ever a game that needed an auto-map feature this is it.
Right, let's see another couple of sexy screenshots...
The enemies are on par with Black Lamp. Gorgeous enemies, like this stripy dude!
Those leaping frogs are insane. Very deadly too! The CryptO'pinion?
Technically speaking, this spooky adventure impressed me with agile scrolling, beautifully animated sprites, great controls, and sampled sound effects (however, I missed a decent background chiptune). Death Trap is very tough; the maps are huge and I often get wiery of the enemy's constant onslaught which can feel annoyingly unfair.
I know that this is only a preview but I came away impressed and unimpressed. It's got the hallmarks of a great platformer. A labyrinth of interesting places, nice puzzles, and unique monsters to kill. However, it's a little OTT with a constant onslaught of baddies which got me muddled about where to go next. It never ends. I need to play it more, I guess?
I suppose a trainer might be welcome to fudge that? Surely that's not right? [Don't Call Me Shirley!!]
- DOWNLOADS -
Back when AtariCrypt was just a baby I recorded this gameplay video. Stonish has a great floppy disk and the hard disk version is available thanks to 8BitChip. If doodling ain't your thing then Hall of Light has every level mapped.
