Featured Post

Vectrex Mini interview - David Oghia talks up the nostalgic vector powerhouse

Having been wowed by the news of the Vectrex Mini at Gamescom , I rushed off some questions to VectrexOn's main man  David Oghia . After a post-event, well earned, break, he's kindly given us a lot of detail about the project and some new images of the unit to share.  His story mirrors mine somewhat, Vectrex represents a glowing, unaffordable, obelisk of gaming power from our youth! But he's had the energy and drive to do something about it, and met the right people to get the job done!  What first got you interested in Vectrex and what spawned the idea of a Mini version? I’ve always been passionate about retro-gaming, but my first love was computers rather than consoles — the ZX81, then the Commodore 128. I only really discovered the console world in the late 90s, which is when I got my very first Vectrex. Of course, I had seen it in stores back in 1983, but at that time it was far too expensive for me.  Today, I own five Vectrex systems at home. Vector-based games ...
0

Review: Freddy Farmer (Nintendo Switch/PlayStation)

Freddy Farmer

Price: £4.99 eShop/PSN (copy provided for review) 

Developer: Catcade

Publisher: Flynn's Arcade

Players: 1

More reviews

A shopping list of five items! Yeah, I struggle to remember those when I nip out to the corner shop. Collect them in the right order? Now, you're asking for trouble. 

Take one farmer (Freddy), his daughter kidnapped by a dragon and a set of fruit-based items you need to collect for the wizard's spells to rescue her from the top of a stinky old castle. 

Simple really, and this retro game has plenty of old-school charm. Get the items in the right order for the best score, do it faster for the best bonus, and repeat many times across the different realms, forest, mines, mountain, cemetery and castle. Each with multiple levels and increasingly nasty guards.

And that's it really. You soon learn the tricks of each enemy from farting mushrooms to racing blobs, weapon-toting goblins and so on. And be on the look out for the extra life bat! Or the gaps in the screen to cross sides and avoid the beasties. 

Freddy Farmer

The trouble with such a simple game is the mechanics need to be spot on, as with Donut Dodo. 

Unfortunately, Freddy Farmer is Clarkson'ed by a few issues. First, he'll sit down on the job if you leave him for a few seconds, with a painful delay in getting back up. Also, you can't cancel ladder climbs, which can be a pain if you mis-trigger or mis-time one. And every jump needs to be made with conviction, otherwise you can tag the wrong fruit, fall onto the wrong one, or die a feeble death. 

Put your maximum effort focus on, and you can overcome these with a fabulously speedy and accurate performance, until you eventually cock it up. Okay, you can take liberties with continues, but for those who want to master Freddy Farmer a touch of patience and total control are key. 

Gotta love the crisp pixels, the bloopy effects and tunes, and the new features that appear in the later levels like rope swings, but the mechanics need a little tightening to make this perfect. 

Score 3/5

More reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Polite discourse welcome...

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


Please note, As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.