Old vs. New: Night Shift vs. Nixy & The Seeds of Doom

CURRENT SCORE:

OLD GAMES 4

NEW GAMES 9

So that's where Fred Dibnah's been recently

NIGHT SHIFT

(U.S. Gold, 1991)

Ever dreamed of working in a factory, head panned in by the deafening clanking of oil-smelling machinery day and night, sweating bullets to desperately try to reach your unrealistic quotas? Boy have I ever! Well now you can, working for Industrial Might & Logic, or George Lucas really. Aren't we all working for him nowadays?

Fiona gets on her bike to get the machine going. Quite the eco-warrior, maybe this is our future so take notes now

You play either Fred or Fiona, in a nice equalitarian touch. Why shouldn't women be allowed to undertake unpleasant, depressing, life-threatening jobs too? You must survive the various shifts working in the toy making deparment. It's a bit like Automania, only this game doesn't make you want to stop living altogether. The machine is a big old beast, so jumping up and falling off platforms is the order of the day.

Fiona decides to jump headlong into the machinery in order to get that spanner

This is probably a genius game, which I'm not genius enough to play well. Brilliantly you have to pedal a bike like crazy to get the machine running, then perform various mechanical tasks using your 'toolie' (not as rude as it sounds). I couldn't get anywhere at all, and would have loved more on-screen hints for the clueless. But it's awesomely original stuff, and I reckon once you get the hang of it, you'll be more than happy to put in the overtime.

Fiona has reached the painty part of the behemoth. Careful, doesn't she know about the Speccy's colour clash?

How good is this screen? Bet a C64 can't do this

NIXY & THE SEEDS OF DOOM

(Bubblesoft, 2019)

There was pandemonium in Pixieland until Nixy (real name Nicola Nickersby) the Glade Spirit cleansed the gaia stone. I hate it myself when the gaia stone ain't clean. Then the Elders sent out scouts to find the source of This Corrosion, I mean this corruption. None of the dib-dib-dibbers returned, rather cruelly, so Inspector Nixy must don her L.G.D. (Little Green Dress) and deerstalker, and take care of business once again!

Nixy contemplates the backdoor option. She's only got 10 lives after all

This isn't as horribly twee as I've made it sound there, and I do like to embellish, as you know. And have you seen our heroine on the load screen in the first game? Not much twee about that letmetellya! Erm, right, calm down. You have to collect seeds (of doom) on your travels. No idea why, the inlay doesn't say.

Nixy climbs down a ladder, hoping to meet her mate Monty Mole

Yup, it's a platformer. Plus points are a very pretty load screen (see, I can be twee too when I want to), fabbers music by the legend that is MmcM and generally slick gameplay with nice graphics to boot. Minus points are...well, you know what I'm gonna say. It's another plat...(*snip* - censored for being too predictable-Ed.)

The seeds of discontent are growing inside our heroine as she tries to figure this room out

VERDICT

BEST GRAPHICS - NIGHT SHIFT

BEST COLOUR - NIXY & THE SEEDS OF DOOM

BEST SOUND - NIXY & THE SEEDS OF DOOM

MOST ORIGINAL - NIGHT SHIFT

MOST PLAYABLE - NIXY & THE SEEDS OF DOOM

MOST ADDICTIVE - NIGHT SHIFT

FINAL SCORE

NIGHT SHIFT 3 NIXY & THE SEEDS OF DOOM 3

Night Shift wins on penalties!