''Fantastic Dizzy'' (''The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy'' outside

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

& Australia) is a 1991

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Oct ...

. It is part of the '' Dizzy series''. It was published on several platforms, including

Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

, Master System,

Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990, in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear pri ...

, Nintendo Entertainment System,NES instruction booklet, p. 1 Amiga, and

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

. The game was planned to be released in time for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

in 1990, but because of a legal action between Codemasters and Nintendo over the

Game Genie Game Genie is a line of video game cheat cartridges originally designed by Codemasters, sold by Camerica and Galoob. The first device in the series was released in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, with subsequent devices released for t ...

the title was released in April 1991, making it miss the Christmas rush it was originally slated for. It sold 125,000 units instead of the expected 500,000. The game was awarded the "NES Adventure Game of the Year 1991" by ''

Game Players ''Game Players'' is a defunct monthly video game magazine founded by Robert C. Lock in 1989 and originally published by Signal Research in Greensboro, North Carolina. The original publication began as ''Game Players Strategy to Nintendo Games'' ...

'' Magazine and given the Parents Choice Award. Almost all of puzzles are from the previous games.

Plot

The evil wizard Zaks casts a spell on the Yolkfolk and kidnaps Dizzy's girlfriend Daisy.NES instruction booklet, p. 3 It is up to Dizzy to undo Zaks' doings and rescue Daisy from the castle in the clouds.

Characters

''Fantastic Dizzy'' contains all 16 characters in the series. While most of the Yolkfolk were harmed by Zaks, others have different problems. Other characters include Good Wizard Theodore, Blackheart the Pirate, the Palace Guard, Prince Clumsy, Rockwart the Troll, Shamus the Leprechaun and the Shop Owner.Nes instruction booklet, pp. 9-21

Locations

There are several places for Dizzy to visit, including the whole complex of the Yolkfolk secret treehouse, the mine, the neighbouring city of Keldor, a pirate ship, a castle, the grasslands, Carber Bay, the cemetery and finally Zaks' Cloud Castle. The game generally scrolls horizontally, although some mini-games/sections scroll vertically. When Dizzy climbs a ladder or jumps to an off-screen platform, a new screen is loaded. As game play continues, the scenery cycles between night and day.

Gameplay

The game is hard to qualify in a genre: while it seems at first a

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

, Dizzy is vulnerable to all enemies while unable to eliminate them, and puzzles are completed by bringing an object to a location (in the same fashion as ''

Gods A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater ...

'' and adventure games), and also has to capture all 250 stars scattered in the game. The game can also be seen as a union of all the previous games where the player can find a lot of familiar puzzles (e.g. elevators, magic beans) and places (e.g. mines, deep sea) as well as several

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than t ...

s based on older games in the series (like ''

Bubble Dizzy ''Bubble Dizzy'' is an arcade style action video game developed by the Oliver Twins and published in November 1990 by Codemasters for the Amstrad, Spectrum, MS-DOS, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Amiga. Gameplay The game involves Dizzy being fo ...

'').

Stars

Depending on the version of the game, 100 or 250NES instruction booklet, p. 4 stars are scattered around the game which must be collected to grant access to the final confrontation with Zaks. While most stars are accessible in the regular parts of the game, some are placed inside the minigames, which forces the player to run through them as many times needed to get all stars. If the player tries to reach the tower without the stars, Dizzy is stunned by the electric door.

Objects

Dizzy can carry up to three items like keys and objects to be used to solve puzzles.NES instruction booklet, pp. 7-8 Some objects are meant to be traded to characters, given to characters, or placed in certain locations. Some are used to reach places or things otherwise inaccessibleNES instruction booklet, p. 6 or to protect from danger. This element is similar to the game ''

Puggsy ''Puggsy'' is a 1993 puzzle-platform game developed by Traveller's Tales and released by Psygnosis on the Mega Drive and Mega-CD consoles, as well as the Amiga home computer. ''Puggsy'' is the name of the title character, an orange space hopper ...

'', released for Sega systems.

Minigames

While most of the game is passed in the slower platform sections, there are three

s required to complete it, plus one to get all the stars: * Mine carts: Dizzy can travel in the carts found in the mine into other places in the game, collecting stars along the way. There are a number of dangers in the rails, from falling rocks, dead ends and carts in the opposite direction. Nearing the end, both cart speed and number of dead ends increase. *

Dizzy Down the Rapids ''Dizzy Down the Rapids'' is an arcade style action video game, that was published in 1991 by Codemasters for the Amstrad CPC, Spectrum and Commodore 64 The game involves Dizzy riding barrels down a river avoiding obstacles and enemies. The gam ...

: Some versions of ''Fantastic Dizzy'' feature a section where Dizzy must ride a barrel down a river avoiding a pursuing troll and several natural hazards while riding surface currents and attempting to collect stars. This minigame is omitted from several versions, including the Mega Drive/Genesis and PC releases. * Castle Capers: A minigame based on the '' Operation Wolf'' concept, Dizzy, armed with a

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fire ...

, has to get a 5 hit advantage over the trolls, who are occupying the castle. However, if the trolls get the same advantage, Dizzy loses a life. * Bubble Trouble: Dizzy has to reach a small island before his oxygen wears out. To do so, he has to ride air bubbles formed in the sea bed, and jumping into the platforms in the sides or other bubbles before they burst. Larger bubbles endure more, but are slower, while smaller ones are fast but burst shortly after Dizzy rides them. This minigame was adapted into a standalone title, called ''

'' but due to further development required on ''Fantastic Dizzy'' and ''Dizzy Down the Rapids'', ''Bubble Dizzy'' was released November 1990. * Theodore's magic puzzle: The

extra life In video games, a life is a play-turn that a player character has, defined as the period between start and end of play. Lives refer to a finite number of tries before the game ends with a game over. It is sometimes called a chance, a try, rest ...

minigame is a regular 4x4 shuffling puzzle, which has to be completed in inside a time limit. As the number of lives increase, so does the complexity of the puzzles.NES instruction booklet, p. 5

Damage indicator

The game uses a damage indicator, as a reverse version of

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

. When the meter fills up, Dizzy loses a

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

Reception

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' gave the game an A- and wrote: "Too-cute-for-words Dizzy (an anthropomorphized egg) needs your help to traverse his puzzle-filled kingdom. This game makes you expend IQ points, and the music is funky". In 2017, Gamesradar ranked the game 30th on their: "Best Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games of all time."

References

External links

*
Fantastic Dizzy Flash & JS Version
{{Dizzy series 1991 video games Amiga CD32 games Amiga games Camerica games Codemasters games Dizzy (series) DOS games Game Gear games Master System games Nintendo Entertainment System games Sega Genesis games Single-player video games Unauthorized video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Matthew Simmonds