Sam’s JOURNEY
» Platform: Commodore 64 » Developer: Protovision » DOWNLOAD: Kikstart.eu/sams-journey-c64 » PRICE: from $23.99 for digital download
Poor little Sam was sound asleep when a sudden loud noise pulled him from his slumber. Whatever it was came from his closet and, on opening the door, he was confronted by a light just before a huge claw reached out to drag him inside. Now Sam finds himself having to journey through a strange, brightly coloured world divided into distinct areas while searching for magical doorways which will hopefully lead home.
There are a huge number of screens to work through and many secret areas – walking into an apparently solid wall will open it up to reveal the hidden part of the map – often containing useful power-ups, keys for locked doors or switches which magically alter some of the platforms. Finding and putting on a costume will give Sam special abilities, for example, dressing as a ninja allows him to climb walls while the pirate outfit comes with a handy cutlass which can be used to slice up enemies or open treasure chests.
Also found in each stage are boulders, these can be picked up and
thrown to take out enemies – wearing the baseball pitcher’s uniform gives the ability to throw with more power and accuracy – or to crack open chests and, with some careful searching of the map, Sam can optionally locate and collect gems, trophies or coins which make up a significant slice of the percentage score awarded at the end of each area. Locating all of these items may require a little lateral thinking and possibly a change of clothes so it’s good that he can return to an area once it’s been passed.
Sam’s Journey is one of the most technically impressive C64 games that we’ve seen, pushing what the hardware can do to the point where it wasn’t possible to do on a stock Ntsc-compatible machine so a RAM expansion is required to help with the scrolling backgrounds. Along with being impressive it’s also fun to play and the sheer scale of Sam’s quest should keep anyone who enjoys platformers busy for a long time.