Three Weeks in Paradise

Mikro-Gen Ltd - 1984 - ZX Spectrum, CPC

The final and last game released in the Wally series sees our main protagonist treat his lovable family to a wellearned holiday and on a cruise no less. Sadly, for the Weeks family however things don’t go quite according to plan and they find themselves washed up on a desert island.

To make matters even worse

Wilma and Herbert have wandered off and gotten themselves captured by the native inhabitants of island, the Can Nibbles who fancy their recent acquisitions for dinner — yikes! So, playing as Wally once again it’s up to you to save your family and find a way off the island. Rescuing your loved ones however won’t be easy as they are well-guarded and as with the previous Wally titles you must find and work out what each object does in order to save them. Of course, not all objects have an obvious use, and it can take a while to find your feet in this game. Thankfully though there is no time limit unlike in the last outing and its back to the old faithful routine of trial and error.

As well as the islands native inhabitants you have to contend with snails, bats and lions who are all out to rob you of one of your four lives.

Graphically the game is very colourful, and animations detailed. The Spectrum version even featured an option to switch off Wally’s natural colour which removed the dreadful colour clash. And if that wasn’t enough the 128K Speccy version even featured extra screens and objects to use and a lovely AY tune. Sadly, for Commodore fans of the series a C64 release never actually materialised despite being advertised.