Premiere
| Developer: The 8th Day | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Core | Sound: |
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| Year: 1992 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Platformer | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
7/10 | |
On the eve of the screening of Core Design’s latest blockbuster, a burglar broke into their offices and made off with the precious reels, right under the nose of poor Clutch Gable, who was snoring peacefully on his editing desk after spending three days (and just as many nights) working tirelessly.
At the crack of dawn, his producer rings him up, demanding the reels be delivered in time for the grand “premiere” … just a few hours away!
But Clutch knows where to find them: at the rival studio Grumbling Pictures. The question remains whether he will manage to retrieve them before the screening…
Unsurprisingly, the film industry register is adopted in this graphically polished platform game, which is not devoid of innovative ideas, but which starts to flag over time, due to overly lengthy levels (much like my sentences) and repetitive gameplay mechanics.
The worlds are constructed on two planes, in the manner of The Magician (which had three, making it even more of a headache). You can dodge an enemy in front of you by shifting to the background or take a staircase instead of the path ahead. On top of that, doors provide access to the backstage area (yes, we are on a film set), a sort of parallel level (literally) that also plays with the concept of depth. This “two times two lanes” setup creates maze-like layouts but unfortunately introduces some clunkiness in controlling the character. It’s also unclear why enemies are so static … but hey, we’ve seen worse.
I rather enjoyed the charming intro, the particularly original boss encounters, and certain cosmetic touches (a black and white level, one had to dare, and references to other games published by Core, such as Chuck Rock, Heimdall, and Wolfchild).
Finally, let’s pour one out for the most conspicuously absent features: sound effects and passwords!
(Press “Space” on the title screen to activate sound effects, but they will replace the music.) While I’m at it, press “down” to roll down a staircase.
Under WinUAE, I recommend the following configuration: “A500, 1.3 ROM, ECS Agnus, 512 KB Chip RAM + 512 KB Slow RAM”.
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