Background
Purple Unicorn Software is a small software developer run by Steve ‘JammaJup’ Dixon, coinop enthusiast and also the man behind the excellent www.jammajup.co.uk.
Another wildlife themed game ensues, following on from his fantastic Pip The Pipistrelle (see the review here), this time Steve has opted to get down to earth and even sub-marine (quite literally) with his latest character Terry, a turtle who needs to get back to the ocean. Obviously this isn’t as easy as it might be and he has to overcome obstacles a-many on his epic quest to find saltwater.
Like Pip, this is built using the JSWed editor and has obvious basic gameplay similarities to both the previous game and Jet Set Willy itself. But Steve has yet again made the most of his imagination and skill to produce another original offering that is both full of fun and challenging at the same time.
Gameplay
Now, I mentioned in my review for Pip that it was extremely difficult and Steve has addressed this by producing three different versions of the same game. A Yellow version for normal difficulty, Cyan for intermediate and Red for hard. Personally I’m glad he did this because it gives players like me a chance to see the end screen!
Needless to say I played the Yellow version (still found it challenging, but that’s just me!) and like Pip it is engrossing. Playing these games takes me back to my childhood, just like when I first played Manic Miner, with that urge to go one screen further even when you have been killed numerous times by the same enemy.
Set over 128 screens and 8 different zones, the screens are attractive, have imaginative themes and are well executed showing that Steve has really got to grips with the software. Like Pip, certain screens pay homage to other games but unlike Pip these are not hidden in TTT. Enemies are equally inventive with good attention to detail. A thing to note is that you do not have to collect all of the ‘Terry Tokens’ to complete the game. You can opt to just get Terry to open water if you like.
The Verdict
In summary – this is another fantastic effort by Purple Unicorn that lives up to and even surpasses some of the standards set by their previous title Pip the Pipistrelle. I was again taken back to a time in my life when nothing mattered except getting to the next screen and you just can’t beat that feeling of nostagia.
The game itself runs in 128K and can be downloaded from the Purple Unicorn website for use with your favourite Spectrum emulator (see links at the bottom of this article).
