Eggs: When boiled (or scrambled, for the perverse) they are nature’s most versatile pocket snack.
They can also be fried, poached and become sentient and live in small tree-house village communities in an eventful fantasy universe; thankfully developer Codemasters chose that final concept for its arcade-cum-platform-puzzle game. Building on previous commercially and critically successful releases for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, amongst other platforms, this later release for the Sega Mega Drive combined many of the best moments of those previous games, upped the ante in the graphics and sound stakes, while adding a few new arcade sequences for a kind of ‘best of’ release for the eggy adventurer.
The story is simple: The evil Wizard Zaks, in a move ripped straight from the Mario-Bowser playbook, has kidnapped Dizzy’s girlfriend Daisy. Dizzy, bravest of the Yolkfolk, must leave the safety of their secret treetop lair and journey across a fairytale land to save both her and his other brethren that have fallen victim to both the actions of the nefarious Zaks as well as other instances of ill fortune.
If you live within a video game universe, and you’re named Daisy, the likelihood of being kidnapped is 200%. We don’t know if Zaks planned to marry Daisy against her will, as this isn’t detailed in Dizzy lore, but it’s a strong possibility.
Meet the Yolkfolk
Accepting the utterly insane and torturous premise of egg people living in a tree village with no safety rails and lots of perilous jumps (which would be like slug people living in houses surrounded by salt piles) the protein-rich denizens of the yolk village are an interesting bunch. Let’s meet them:
*PS - The real Zaks just looks like a stereotyped middle-eastern terrorist done up in traditional wizard-wear. (Really!)
Quite nice little descriptions of Dizzy’s current location are provided while you view your inventory. In this example, you can see that Dizzy has enormous strength, able to carry a one-tonne weight alongside a key and length of rope. As you can only carry three items at any one time, a key challenge to the game is making sure you are carrying the right items for the right sections of the game and don't need to backtrack repeatedly.
Swipe left or right?
Fantastic Dizzy falls into that common trap of the era of the box art portraying the game as something other than it actually is, almost as a kind of video game Tinder. That adventure-loving guy who says he loves travel, climbing and boxing? All lies, and you’ll get to the third date and find out he just likes wandering around his secret tree village, collecting items for his high-maintenance family.
As an aside it reminds me of those old ‘Amazing Worlds’ sci-fi short story collections that used to have giant robots fighting or a thrilling looking space battle on the cover, and then you would read the story and be disappointed when you found out that it was about a crab that becomes sentient.
Back to the misleading cover and firstly, and most importantly, at no point does Dizzy wear a hat in the game. This contrasts with the Indiana Jones-type Fedora worn by him on the cover. Whilst I would have accepted another form of hat, perhaps a Stetson or even a Trilby, the lack of any hat at all is utterly egregious and would have prompted me to return the game, complete with a letter of complaint to Codemasters, had I bought the game at retail.
They may as well have had Dizzy portrayed as a piece of fruit or sex-toy on the cover and be done with it.
These cover images with their whimsical and fun-looking artwork are a far better thematic representation of Dizzy as a game and as a game universe. These are the Spectrum game covers courtesy of mobygames.com
Egg Torture Porn
Maybe a slightly OTT title there! While the difficulty has been reduced a little from earlier releases of the game and you now have a health bar (I spent the first hour desperately avoiding every enemy, thinking that if I was brushed even once by a spider or snail Dizzy would die with that horrible shrinking egg/pop animation from the Spectrum game) it certainly isn’t a walk in the park, or treehouse village for that matter. Travel through some areas is fraught with difficulty and your limited inventory will have you cursing that you should have brought that flagon of rum to give to the pirate, rather than a cow.
One of the more challenging elements is the lack of battery backup on the MD cartridge meaning that ideally you need to play through in one session (leaving thirty year-old consoles on overnight probably not being recommended). This is compounded by the requirement to find all 300 stars to access Zaks’ throneroom at the end of the game – much frustrating back-tracking may ensure to find that one errant star if you haven’t been thorough in your exploration!
Review - Filbert Wang
One criticism often directed towards the Mega Drive release of Fantastic Dizzy was that it didn’t contain much new material and that a lot of the puzzles were recycled from earlier versions of the game. Back in 1991 when the console version of the game was released that criticism was somewhat more valid; the game had previously been released on home computers with cheap releases on the Spectrum and C64 amongst others. As such asking punters to fork out forty quid for a prettier version of a game they could have got on budget a few years before (or more likely copied from a friend) might have seemed unreasonable.
But fast forward thirty years and the situation has changed somewhat, and Fantastic Dizzy in many ways represents the magnum opus of Dizzy games. Within the game itself rather then just being content with a rehash the developers did try to add some new content to make use of the additional 16-bit horsepower; The graphics are beautifully illustrated and colourful, while a selection of well composed background tunes perfectly capture the somewhat mournful and understated environment of Dizzy’s world. Warning: If you haven’t heard the background track to Dizzy’s village for some time, I guarantee it will put a lump in your throat!
As well as this there were some unique components added to the game, such as the minecart section which, while it can be frustrating in the way Dizzy can be killed off suddenly and violently, is a welcome change of pace. Codemasters really did try and add some additional content for your monies, beyond the improved 16-bit graphics palette.
In terms of the gameplay, most of the game consists of completing puzzles by utilising various items in different situations. As an example Dizzy can use some weed killer to pass a particularly voracious plant, or use scuba gear to access previously fatal underwater sections. These puzzles are generally fairly obvious and while sometimes you’ll kick yourself for not seeing a solution earlier on, at no point will they be as willfully obtuse as could sometimes be the case in the Monkey Island games for example, where players were forced in pre-internet days to resort to a ‘try every item with everything’ approach (what do you mean that pirate was a soprano and needed some salts mixed with his lemonade to restore his singing voice before he gives you his key?)
As mentioned the length of game, and lack of save option, can affect the enjoyment of it – by the time you’ve mixed Grandpa Dizzy’s medicine for the 9th time, you’ll be looking for things to add to the recipe and poison him. But this feels like an unfair criticism given the technology that the developers had to work with at the time.
All in all Fantastic Dizzy represents a wonderful collection of a landmark gaming series and would be difficult to top even if it was re-released today. Whether you played it first time around or not make sure you get hold of a copy, the Yolkfolk will be welcoming and you’ll be glad that you visited.
Well done Dizzy, you’ve thawed out Denzil! However did you not stop to think that starting a naked flame next to wooden furniture, in a building made or wood, amongst a wooden village, situated in trees, was possibly not the sharpest idea?
The unmade sequel featured Dizzy’s adopted brother Dirk attempting to hunt down Dizzy for the unwitting genocide of three generations of Yolkfolk.
Cheap at half a dozen?
Although it seems to be available fairly readily, if you want the Mega Drive version of this game the cost is more Waitrose-Columbian-Blacktail variety than battery-farm eggs. Expect to pay £30+ for a boxed copy with manual and map in reasonable condition. One cheaper way would be to get the combined Codemasters cart release of Dizzy with Cosmic Spacehead (which was also a fun little platformer in its own right); if you’re prepared to wait for a deal unboxed copies of that game seem to be less popular with collectors and can be obtained for around £5.
Of course as Fantastic Dizzy features elements of previous games you could look at getting versions on another platform; Fantasy World and Treasure Island Dizzy are commonly regarded as being some of the best in the series, and were available on the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum (despite their age copies of both are generally straightforward to find).
Or finally, if you’re someone for whom reaching for your wallet is difficult, you can play it for free on an emulator and have it on your desktop alongside the copy of that one Radiohead album that the band previously sold for whatever cost you wanted to pay (even one pence) but chose to pirate instead.
Dogged determination and tenacity rather than skill, as well as a partner that is prepared to forgive your occasional howls of pain and you clearing off for 3 hours one evening, can get you to the end of this game. You’ll get this lovely image of an egg-version of Joanna Lumley and Dizzy wearing that fucking hat.
Finally - Many thanks to the excellent websites Yolkfolk.com and the DizzyPedia https://dizzy.fandom.com/, which were used for most of the non-bollocks reference material in this review. Check them out!
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