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### Balloonacy [Amstrad CPC]

#### http://www.kjthacker.f2s.com/

#### http://www.cronosoft.co.uk/

#### Previewed By J. Monkman

Originally released for the C64 back in 2001 (and since made available on cassette complete with it's sequel via retro publisher Cronosoft), Balloonacy is a relatively simple arcade game in which the player must guide their fragile gas-bag through 16 single-screen stages, navigating past obstacles, various monsters and unlocking the exit to progress on to the next level. It's proven to be a one of Richard Bayliss' more popular games - and thanks to the work of Kevin Thacker, Amstrad users will soon have the opportunity to play an enhanced conversion on their CPC's.

Although the game is apparently finished, it's currently unavailable through the Cronosoft site due to a lack of recent updates - which is unfortunate for us at RGCD because we've only got the four-level demo version to road-test (hence why this is in the extras section and not with the rest of the game reviews). In fact, this is also the reason why this preview write-up is so short; it's hard to write an awful lot about a game that is essentially four screens in length and takes less than three minutes to beat!

So what's the score? Well, as a direct port Balloonacy is not bad, but to be honest I'm a little under whelmed by the enhancements; the only upgrade that I've noticed from the demo is in the notably tweaked and improved in-game graphics. A fair attempt has been made to replicate Richard's Euro-dance style soundtrack from the C64 version, but this is a bit disappointing as the music wasn't particularly impressive to begin with and the AY chip does a pretty dire job of emulating the SID sound; a bit of originality would have gone a long way here. In addition to this, the actual game-play seems a little less frantic on the CPC due to a slight drop in speed - although personally I think this is improves the playing experience as I never really got on that well with the hyper-sensitive and zippy original.

It's not really fair to give the game a rating based on what I've seen so far; four levels are just not enough to judge this conversion. However, if forced to do so, I'd probably award it with an above average mark for the fact that it does a pretty decent job of imitating the source material - and as a bonus it also looks considerably more attractive. It's a shame that Kevin didn't choose to enhance the game further with a greater number of levels, new (and more appropriate) audio, high score table and a proper password system, but as a debut game release Balloonacy CPC is still a worthy effort.