You just can't get en oeuf of Dizzy, can you? The most famous egg in the world is back with a vengeance. Nick Roberts gets out the frying pan and chases him around the car park!

Code Masters
£10.99 cass, compilation

Leading the way for all eggkind is Dizzy, a small character with big red gloves and a cheeky grin. Before his first appearance back in 1987, eggs were a neglected 'species', eggsploited by evil chefs who justified their poaching, scrambling and frying actions by claiming the eggs had a smashing time! Dizzy soon changed these outdated attitudes by standing up to human beings and showing them he too could walk, swim, fly and tell crap jokes!

This is no ordinary Dizzy game. This is a mega compilation with three brand-spanking new games and two classics from the Dizzy stable. I bet you're jumping up and down with anticipation, (what happened to 'eggcitement'? - Ed).

DIZZY MY HEAD IS SPINNING

I'll put all you Dizzy fans out of your misery. The two old games are Kwik Snax, a fab arcade romp where our hero has to complete four levels of Pac-man-style chomping, and Panic Dizzy, a totally frustrating arcade game where Diz is in charge of a toy factory. By using his big lever he ensures shapes fall into the correct holes to create toys.

Now to the bit you've all been waiting for. The new games consist of two cartoon adventures and one arcade game. Dizzy Down The Rapids has the little fellow in a barrel being tossed from side to side as it careers down treacherous waterways. You paddle like mad to control the vessel and collect the bonuses that lie around the river.

There's also a shoot-'em-up element, where you bop evil trolls and crocs on the nose with rotten apples!

ARISE, PRINCE DIZZY!

The special bonus cartoon adventure is Dizzy - Prince of the Yolkfolk. In classic Dizzy style, you bound and spin around the screen solving problems for the you characters you meet.

The story goes like this: Dizzy and Daisy were baking a cherry pie for Grand Dizzy but all they found in their cherry store were the pawprints of Pogie the Fluffle!

'Quick, there he is, get him!'shouted Dizzy, and they chased naughty Pogie into the enchanted forest. Neither of them had a good sense of direction so soon they got lost, but found their way to a strange eerie castle in the deepest part of the forest (oo'er).

They popped inside in case Pogie had got there first, but being a nosey little egg, Daisy had to have a look around. She found a mystic spinning wheel, pricked her finger and started to fall asleep. 'Oh my!' cried Dizzy, 'what am I going to do now?'

You've got to help Dizzy put things back to normal, and become Prince of the Yolkfolk.

IZZY, WIZZY, LETS GET BUSY!

The trump card in this amazing compilation is Spellbound Dizzy, the biggest and best cartoon adventure yet. There are 105 action-packed screens to explore and lots of surprises to please fans everywhere.

One day, Dizzy was tinkering about in bedroom of his mate, Theo the Wizard, and found a book of magic spells. Of course he couldn't let an opportunity like this pass him by so he read a spell out loud. KERWHIZZ!

'Oh boring,' he moaned, as it seemed the spell had no effect.

Dizzy went home, but what a surprise he got! All the Yolkfolk had been magically spirited to the underworld. How was he going to get them back?

EGGCELLENT!

Every Dizzy sequel up till has now been exactly the same technically; only the stories and locations have changed. Big Red Software have gone for the jackpot with Spellbound. There are lots of new animation frames for Dizzy as he eats, swims, falls and holds his breath. To make the locations a little more interesting, the programmers have used attractive effects such as rain, bees and a runaway mine cart!

With 105 screens, Spellbound Dizzy is bigger than both Dizzy 3 and 4 put together! The puzzles are a little harder than the last game: it took me ages to work out how to get the mine cart going, but things never got so frustrating I wanted to switch off.

Being a hardcore Dizzy fan myself, I absolutely love Spellbound, and the whole pack, for that matter. At £10.99, you're getting amazing value for money. Mega-cartoon adventure action all the way.

NICK [92%]

Nintendo have Mario, Hallowe'en has Michael Myers and Codemasters have Dizzy. All these characters have inspired sequels, but the one we're interested in is the latter. I may not bean very enthusiastic about Dizzy games in the past but deep down I'm very fond of the little egg. Admittedly, Panic Dizzy and Kwik Snax have been reviewed in these pages before, but the other three games are fresh and lively, and all five are up to Big Red's impeccable standards. The puzzles are frustrating, especially for people who may be playing these games for the first time, but believe me, all the answers will be staring you in the face. Dizzy's Excellent Adventures is a most triumphant game, especially at the price.
MARK [93%]

CodeMasters
£9.99 cassette
Reviewer: Linda Barker

Eggs, eh? They're the perfect gift, and not just at Easter either. Glass eggs, stone eggs, Kinder Eggs, Faberge eggs... the list is endless. Real eggs aren't bad either, there are hundreds of ways of cooking them and they're jolly tasty and good for you too. Yep, if eggs didn't exist we'd have to invent them.

Right, let's have a look at the game. When James wrote his Megapreview a couple of months back, there was still some uncertainty over what was actually going into this pack. Y'see, those cheesy chaps CodeMasters had so many beaut games that they just couldn't decide what ones to put in. But you'll be glad to hear that they've now made up their collective mind, got everything sorted and are ready to roll. Hurrah! Buy this bargainous box and in amongst the spare placcy bags and French words you'll find Spellbound Dizzy, Prince Of The Volt Folk, Dizzy Down The Rapids, Kwik Snax and Panic Dizzy. The last two have been released before, but the other three are bona fide newies. Let's get the two mouldies out of the way first...

OLDER THAN YESTERDAY
KWIK SNAX

This was reviewed earlier this year in issue 62. Back then it was given a bunch of flowers, a box of chocs and an engraved plaque saying 'I'm a Megagame and I'm jolly ace."

And guess what? It's still a stonker. The evil Wizard Zaks pops up once are and sends four of Dizzy's eggy friends off to separate islands. So each egg is left on it's ownsome. It's an obvious job for that egg-about-town, Dizzy. Now, there's one thing I don't understand about zapper Zaks, who come he never sends Diz anywhere? I mean, surely he must have realised by now that wherever he sends those eggs, that darned Dizzy will soon find them.

Dizzy's brief is to visit each island and rescue an egg on each one. Instead of your run-of-the-mill sun, sea and sand affairs; each island has a special theme - one's covered in ice, one's got loads of clouds to lounge around on, one's full of teddy bears and one's go a castle on it. Diz has to spend his time collecting fruit, avoiding meanies, negotiating mazes and picking up bonuses. It's especially brilliant if you think bananas are one of God's greatest inventions. Why? Cos there's screens full of them. Yum!

If you haven't already got it, the it's worth buying this compilation, Kwik Snax is clear and bright and great fun. In ish 62, Rich gave this 92° and it's certainly a Megagame. 90°

PANIC DIZZY

This one's a bit different from most Dizzy games. Instead of running around collecting things and getting all hot and bothered, Dizzy just sits tight in the middle of the screen. This is the Codies' attempt at a Dizzy puzzlerm, it's a Tetrissy/Klaxy sort of game where different coloured shapes fall down from the top of the screen and you've got to get them in the matching holes at the bottom of the screen. Rich, our humble reviewer, gave Panic 49° and a bit of hard time. Boring and tedious, he called it. Now I think he was a trifle harsh, it is quite a simple game but I thought it was quite good. Call me weird, but I'm a puzzle fan, I actually like dropping little coloured things into holes. (You're weird. Ed) Rich thought that it was a game for the younger players and rated it accordingly. Personally, I'm all for the little ones having a nice, easy to pick up game to play. So I'm going to disagree quite strongly with Rich and give it 65°.

YOUNGER THAN YESTERDAY
DIZZY DOWN THEE RAPIDS

The Codies have only just made up their mind to stick this one in. It's a conversion of a Nintendo game which see Dizzy and his girly chum, Daisy, rolling around in a barrel. (Eh? Ed) Well, they're not actually rolling around, but the barrel is. It's just like that Burt Reynold's film where he's in a canoe, fighting furiously against the might of nature. You know, the one that always comes up in Trivial Pursuit. (She's talking about Deliverance. Ed)

Yep, our Diz is a right little hero, and a gentleman at that. He's out to protect his woman from, amongst other nasties, trolls and sharks. Dizzy can't very well lay into these baddies, instead he's got to, erm, throw apples at them. Now, the idea of going down a turbulent river and throwing things at people will seem a bit familiar to those of you who have played Toobin'. It sounds similar, but it's actually a side-on view thingy, rather than a look-down-at-it thingy. Graphically it looks much the same as every other Dizzy game, except it's got a bigger river than most. It's fun, it's sweet and it's quite good. Well worth the 84° I've awarded it.

PRINCE OF THE YOLK FOLK

I really liked this one. It's your usual Dizzy affair. He has to wander around collecting lots of things like magic carpets and heavy pick-axes and getting lots of info from the people he meets in his travels. The kingdom is in a terrible state 'cos an evil troll has taken over the castle. The good king is away fighting in the crusades, so the pretty princess is left to the mercy of old Mr Troll. Dizzy, dude that he is, offers to rescue her. Hurrah!

The beginning of the game sees you trapped in an underground cavern with no visible escape route. You'll have to exercise the old grey matter a bit if you want to get out. But nay fret Spec-churns, it's set at a similar difficulty level to most of the previous Dizzy games. Find the exit and it's time to march over to the castle. Unfortunately, there's a big, green, blobby troll in the way and he's not going to let you pass. Not just lie that, anyway. So it's time to go walkabout and meet lots of odd characters, like a mysterious ferryman who demands something valuable and a lion with a sore paw. Its all jolly good fun, but it's only got about 30 screens so it's not exactly humungus. So it can have 80°.

SPELLBOUND DIZZY

Originally, so my tomato sauces tell me, this was going to have 90 screens. Good, eh? But! The rather wondrous Codies have decided that it'd be loads better if they went for 105 screens instead. Crivens, gosh and by gum! Not only is it bigger, its also more difficult, than Prince Of The Yolk Folk.

You, as Dizzy, have been a bit of a silly sausage and magicked all of your mates and your girly friend into the very depths of hell. Eek! Better go and find them, hadn't you? Once again, there's loads of daft objects to collect and use. Along the way there's stars to bounce into and plenty of fruit to keep those sugar levels at a steady rate. When Dizzy has a snack, his mouth moves in a most realistic manner. He's so amazingly sweet, his little face scrunches up with pain and he just looks so stunned when he knocks his head. I had an ace time playing this but it really annoyed the rest of the team. Not the game you understand, it was my 'oohs' and 'ahhs' that had them reaching for the vom bucket.

Poor Diz comes in for quite a bashing here, whenever he smashes into a wall or takes a tumble loads of little stars float around his head. It's very difficult to resist the temptation to hurl him into every solid surface, just to see what happens. You can even drown him! (Linda, that's just horrible. Ed) I know, but it's not as if he's real or anything. Don't worry, Spec-chums, I love Diz dearly and I wouldn't dream of hurting him. Ahem.

Spellbound Dizzy is big, bold and beautiful. It's also the best game in the pack so I'd be a real meanie to give it anything less than 90°.

All in all, Dizzy's Excellent Adventures is a stocker of a compilation. What's more, it's exactly what you need for the Christmas hols. Eventually you'll get really bored with cold turkey and mince pies, the pine needles will start dropping off the tree and the only choccies left will be the crap coffee creams. At this point of despair you'll be so glad that you bought this game. So think ahead mon petit bleu chapeaux, get down to your local gaming paradise and buy this. So what if you've only got enough money to buy the dog a present. Buy it this. It'll soon get bored when it discovers that cassettes don't smell of other dogs. Then you can nick it back.

Label: Codemasters
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £9.99 Tape
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes

Adventure brought to you with a a smile can only mean one thing; you shouldn't have eaten that last forty five tubes of sherbert. Or it could mean that Dizzy is back.

Yet our local yolkel, product of the incredibly fertile minds of the Oliver brothers, is back with a vengeance on this five game compilation.

Dizzy is the type of computer game character you either love or hate. He's ultra cute (in an eggy sort of way) and in general the games are all ultra playable. However for those brought up on a diet of beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups he's guaranteed to seem like a bit of a sissy. That said, Dizzy is likely to go down as one of the most popular characters in computer game history, a sort of UK version of Mario without the moustache and made entirely out of something that drops out of chicken's bottoms.

Dizzy Down The Rapids involves our diminutive hero in a full shell careering raftbound down a fast flowing waterway to escape from Rockwart the Troll.

The other two titles on this compilation are Panic Dizzy the toy factory caper and Kwik Snax, an entertaining Packman style game. Both of these have been out for some time as separate games and are still quite tasty - and well worth dipping your soldiers in.

Of the five games included here, three are completely new; these are Spellbound Dizzy, Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk and Dizzy Down The Rapids. Spellbound Dizzy and Prince Of The Yolkfolk may be standard Dizzy adventures but are really fine examples of the game. In scary and fantasy worlds (yes, there's no poll tax) you must guide Dizzy through forests and caves to rescue his friends and defeat enemies of the Yolkfolk. Playability is, as always, excellent and you'll have to scramble your brain in order to get to get through them.

Dizzy's excellent adventure has to be the best budget compilation available for the Spectrum this Christmas. It's not exactly riveting action but it will keep you played out and puzzled for a long time.

GARTH:
Egg-sactly what you need for Christmas. For all of you who need a diet high in cholesterol, this particularly good egg of a compilation will take a lot of beating!