Al 'n' Dave's Speed Reviews A-Z: T

TOOFY IN FANLAND

(Paul Jenkinson, 2012)

I've been to Finland, and it was exactly like this

The Spectrum Show's a bit good, isn't it? Paul Jenkinson has been doing them for ages now and is still going strong, even if he's running out of reliable hardware to test, and he reviews his own games. Here's one now. T.I.F. is the first of 3 Toofy games he's done, and in short your mission is to take back your 40 stolen nuts, scattered around Fanland. The fans blow you around, so try not to be a lightweight or you're doomed.

Screen 1 and it's time for Toofy to start grabbing his nuts (sorry, no excuse)

Dave: "The simplest games are often the best ones, right? This is a nice use of A.G.D., Paul J definitely knows how to create a simple playable Speccy game. This one's got a pick up 'n' play feel to it, no instructions needed. Fortunately there's only nasties to avoid in the early screens, but I quickly lost everything (including my lives and marbles) as soon as there were two things bouncing around the screen... My poor ageing reactions just couldn't keep up. Definitely got a Manic Miner feel to it, in that once you figure out a screen you can often do it without further trouble. There are a couple of early difficulty spikes (I had REAL trouble with screen 3) but I don't really mind having screens that aren't too challenging later in the game."

This screen's got more fans than Ikea. Do they sell fans, could be?

Al: "I've set myself a half hour minimum time limit to play these 26 games, and that's generally long enough to get a good idea of how the land lies. This game seemed relatively straightforward, so I thought 30 minutes would be ample, but an hour later I've just finished it (Saving states? Of course) and very good it was too! So well played P.J."

Bet you never reached this level of Cybernoid

SCORING TIME!

Dave: "What more can I say - nice simple game, very playable. Also possibly one of Paul J's more difficult games, as I could only get about halfway through the screens."

7.5/10

Al: "Maddeningly addictive, clever puzzler. I'm a big FAN!"

7/10

"Just one more thing..."

Columbo: "What's your fave parts of the Spectrum Show, fellas? Any observations generally?"

I can just imagine PJ sitting there waiting, all excited, like a kid at Xmas

Al: "It's amazing how Paul has produced so many shows over the years, and it's still essential viewing for Spectrum heads. His dedication to reviewing practically every hardware item is incredible (and expensive!) But rest assured, when he finally runs out of other things to talk about, there'll still be stacks of games out there to review. My fave bits are games reviews and uber-geeky chats with Geoff! My least fave things are too much Jetpac from Paul, and too much Lords of Midnight from Geoff, but it's still aces."

I can just imagine Geoff sitting there waiting, all excited, like a kid at Xmas

Dave: "Ooh yeah, great show. In fact, some people might accuse you of blatantly nicking the conversational chat idea from Paul/Geoff off T.S.S. (looks sideways at Al suspiciously). Have been quite enjoying the recent 'running a business using a Speccy' bits of the show... Though it surprised me how many of the word processing, spreadsheet and database packages, that I thought were uber-professional at the time, were written in BASIC. I'd love to receive a letter from my bank on ZX printer paper."

This is how we produced our business docs in the olden times, kids

"I also quite like the type-in sections. I'm not sure why though, as I know before I see the results that the games are going to (a) not work first time, and (b) be completely rubbish! Does that make me a sadist or a masochist? Probably."

I couldn't find any screenshots of a type-in, so Cassette 50 will have to do