Okay to start off you should know that I am referring to the games on the ZX Spectrum (128k for the tech-heads). This is because more games came out on the Specky (Spectrum) and its that which the games were originally coded on (they were ported to many other systems including the Amiga and the PC).

Okay, so you may be asking, “so what the hell is Dizzy?” Well, it’s a game that was made on the ZX Spectrum in the 1980’s but finished its reign on the PC and Mega-Drive (Genesis for the Americans). The basic concept of the game is that you are a egg that is called surprisingly enough Dizzy, you are part of a small village that has “the yolk folk” inhabiting it. The Yolk Folk are your family and friends.

The basic plot is unusually the same in these games “Zack the evil wizard has captured Dizzy’s friends and girlfriend, Dizzy is obviously pissed at this and sets off the find his friends to defeat the evil wizard Zack”. You accomplish this task by jumping around many, many screens of pure fun picking up objects and solving tasks.

In all there were 7 PURE Dizzy games (Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy Land Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Prince Of The Yolk Folk and Crystal Kingdom Dizzy. (There was another game called Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy that was released on the Mega-Drive and the PC but I don’t count that as being pure for reasons specified later). Dizzy also formed a few Spin-offs, the obvious ones being Kwik Snax (which was a puzzle game that had a super cool Dizzy rock band in it :D), Fast Food Dizzy (PAC-Man Rip-off ;)), Dizzy Down The Rapids (Action game involving Dizzy in a barrel and apples), Panic Dizzy (another puzzle game) and Bubble Dizzy (in which you had been thrown off a pirate ship into the deep water and have to find you way up to the surface by riding bubbles. Hell a magazine (crash magazine) even made its own version of Dizzy (Dizzy 3 1/2) as the release of Dizzy 4 was getting close.

If you’re still in puzzlement of why the creators (the Oliver Twins), created their whole game around a load off eggs! Then think of it this way; Mario is one of the best selling game series ever and that is about a Italian plumber created by some guys in Japan… go figure?

Magicland Dizzy:
Well guess who has gone and captured all the Yolk Folk. Yup that’s right that evil wizard Zack again. Sheesh you think he would of learned that dizzy kicks his arse every time, n what does he want with eggs other than to eat them, I digress.

This is the dizzy that the ever popular walking on clouds was brought into the limelight, but float on them too long and the earth shall soon become closer to Dizzy’s boots (you can now walk on clouds but you sink if you stand still).

In this episode your duties range from persuading a witch to perform magic, to kicking Ogre’s arse’s (literally). The graphics and sound are better in this one I reckon ). Well worth playing, I leave it 😀

Music:
Just HAD to put this in, the music is great! The tunes stick in your head for years.

Conclusion:
Defiantly worth getting, even if you’re not a fan of platformers. Gords
statement: ” Whoopee Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Ahh crap I jumped in the water”

Bad things about Dizzy:
Yes there are some bad things about these games :O. Basically the controls are one, as you can sometimes jump too far or to short and you die, you can lose all of your lives on one small part like jumping over a lake. After you have got real far and that happens, you get pissed off quite a bit.

Related Links

• MobyGames: Magicland Dizzy
  Read all about it on MobyGames.
• Wikipedia: Magicland Dizzy
  Read all about it on Wikipedia.