Spiky Harold is a budget game from Firebird. Read more in this Spiky Harold Review. In the basics good but in my opinion it lacks one major feature.
In this game you are going through plenty of levels and like most games of this type it consists of collecting items, in this game food and drinks, and avoid crucial creatures that only want to kill you.
Spiky Harold Review – Title Picture
Avoiding the creatures requires your precise action, there are no comprimises in this game. During the game play it really becomes understandable why you need so many lives to be able to play the game. They missed on not introducing the feature to be able to kill the creatures when you jump on them.
Fun to try, but the game itself is not a game you get stuck to, it is really to complicated for that. On the graphical side it could have been little to ask to maybe include a bigger variation of colors between the levels.
%
Our Rating
In the Magazines
Yet more cute characters from Firebird; this time the hero being a hedgehog called Harold, trying to cope with the hazards of a very hostile garden. His pleasureable task is to try to collect all the fruit and goodies that have been left lying around and under the garden, so that he can prepare for hibernation. It’s a platform/exploration game in which the garden is split up into three main areas. There’s above ground where Harold can take a stroll in the grass, underground tunnels composed of a very red clay soil, and the pond where he can get more than just his toes wet. All three areas have bits of fruit spread around them, and in addition there are other flowers and objects to brighten up the view.
Spiky Harold Start-Page
Harold is delightfully animated as he makes his way around the ghastly garden. He walks on his back legs, his spikes bouncing around on his back, with a happy look on his face and a great jumping action where he crouches and then waggles his legs as he flies acrobatically through the air. You’ll believe a hedgehog can fly. He also displays an impressive array of teeth when he eats the goodies – pity he doesn’t use them on the gardens nasties. There are plenty of things to get his gnashers into including apples, cherries, grapes and the odd glass of wine. The wine has a rather unnerving effect on Harry because until he gets off the screen it reverses the controls, which can initially be rather confusing.
Spiky Harold Screen 2
The other animals that threaten Harry are also well drawn and animated; including little chicks, wasps, flies, worms, mice, birds, clouds, fish and some decidedly non-biological threats. These feature on just about every screen and follow movement patterns that have to be worked out so that they can be avoided more easily in the future. This is often tough because it requires split-second timing and because the creature’s movement patterns intersect differently if left to repeat their routes. Touching any of the moving animals with a snout, spike, foot or such will result in the loss of one of Harry’s 20 lives. That may sound like a lot of lives but it’s very easy to lose them and you’ll need every one to complete. this task. Only experience will teach you where to go and when, but in some situations a suicide leap for a piece of fruit is needed.
Spiky Harold And the Wine Glas
The use of colour is disappointing throughout the game; with a bit more work and imagination it could have looked a lot nicer. There isn’t much sound in the game but it does have a nice version of ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ during the title screen and ‘An English Country Garden’ while the game is loading. The gameplay is quite tough, putting a lot of pressure on the players timing, but at heart it’s just a simple explore and collect effort. A good budget title that should give a fair amount of fun.
Amstrad Action Issue 10 July 1986 – By BW
On the Covers
The cover itself really gives the game justice. Our Spiky Harold, hungry as few is on it. This is something interesting with the Silver 1.99 Range titles, and that is that they always spent time and put effort in having nice cover designs.
THE GAME
You must help Spiky Harold to prepare for hibernation. Each of the 57 chambers beneath the Hedgerow contains an item of food which Harold can eat. However, he must avoid the creatures who will try to stop him, as well as conkers, sulphur clouds, bouncing balls and peeping periscopes. On his travels, Harold may find some coins which will give him extra lives, and wine glasses that will make him drunk. When you have helped Harold to collect all 57 objects, he must be guided to his home cavern where he can hibernate. BEWARE . . . A sharp frost has been forecast so Harold must have hibernated by the time 24 hours have elapsed, as indicated on the clock, at the bottom of the display.
LOADING
1. If you own a CPC 464, then place the rewound cassette into the tape unit, press play, and press CTRL and ENTER on the keyboard.
2. If you own either a CPC 664 or a CPC 6128, then type TAPE and press ENTER. Then follow the same procedure as for the CPC 464, making sure that you have connected a suitable cassette player to your computer according to the User Manual.
PLAYING THE GAME
You may use either a joystick or the keyboard to help Harold on his travels. If you wish to use a joystick, select the redefine keys option and define the keys as follows:
MOVE LEFT <—
MOVE RIGHT —>
JUMP COPY
To use the keyboard, just select the keys you wish to use with the redefine option.
Related Spiky Harold Review Content
Find more interesting titles from Firebird. The Silver 1.99 range was their budget range but som of the titles are really worth playing. Spiky Harold was also released for several other hardware other than the Amstrad CPC version that was played in this review.
