9 Lives

Reach out for the power

Once again, it's time for some more Atari ST box art and, today we have 9 Lives. Like most Arc games, this box has a simple design but is also pretty comical with a laughing cat that reminds me of Tom And Jerry. I must admit, I laughed at the glowing reviews plastered by three popular magazines! This has to be a great purchase, right?

Sadly, they were wrong because 9 Lives is incredibly problematic - the gameplay borders on impossible! At first, I thought this might be because of the controls, which take some time to fully master. Once you have, I found them perfect: it's easy to navigate and jump through the platforms and those long leaps are guided by a meter for fine control.

So, no matter what others say, it's not the controls. Are you shocked? I am. Let's view a couple of screenshots...

What a massive and unique variety of characters this game has.


Just look at those funny faces! I'm sure these were designed by insane people!!

What's going on?

It's not the joystick controls but the game itself. These present several awkward flaws that irk me: the sprites are too big so each screen appears "zoomed in". This means the rooms feel cluttered, thus Bob cannot help but touch something nasty. Sure, I can knock them out with my woolly yo-yo but soon they're back up and ready to zap more of my lifeforce!

Also, the levels are incredibly unfair and require a psychic gamer to be previously aware of every off-screen trap. Argh, those darn spikes!! And - oddly, for a cat - Bob cannot fall very far without dying!! However, this produces a hilarious animation effect not too dissimilar to Wile E. Coyote from the Road Runner cartoons. And I loved that!

The idea is great but the design doesn't quite feel right. Sigh, I think it's time for more screenshots...

Another life was lost... Well, at least I'm going up and not DOWN!! Phew.

Oh dear, another life lost at the hands of the frustrating and over-crowded level design...

Aesthetics?

The cartoon graphics are created by Simon Butler and are superb. Sprites are drawn with amazing detail and feel more like an exhibition than a game! The animations throughout are brilliant - I love how Bob struts his stuff walking across my screen. And what about how he clings to a ledge, just before managing to pull himself up. Fantastic!!

Audio isn't left lagging behind thanks to the most gorgeous YM Chipmusic created by Martin Walker and Simon Butler. Throughout the music is nothing less than perfect. Zero complaints about the musak from me.

No more screenshots! This time we get to see what's inside the box...

Okay, there's not much in the box but the manual doubles as a poster!

The CryptO'pinion?

Personally, I think 9 Lives had the potential to be a great platformer but I doubt it was produced by anyone that enjoyed playing games. It certainly wasn't beta tested before released lol. Sadly, I imagine most will play this once or twice before giving up - which is a shame? To think I bought this... but it's still a piece of ST history that I will cherish.

Take it for a spin and enjoy the aesthetics but, just make sure you enable the trainer option!!

Floppy disks at Old Games Finder & HDD version by 8BitChip.