Treasure Trap
Title Treasure Trap
Game Type General Action
Company Electronic Zoo
Players 1
Compatibility A500
Submission Chris Burns
Review
The first thing that hits you when you load this game is the rather neat
theme tune which is based on an instrumental 'Row Row Row yer Boat'. It
starts off with the usual tune, then switches to a House style version
complete with Ha-Ha-Ha yeah's (very popular in the late 1980's for you
young pups out there! :-) and finally goes into more of a synth rock
version which I'm sure Jean Michel Jarre would have been very proud of!
Honestly, hours of fun! I usually let the tunes loop round a few times
before actually pressing fire to start the game!
Oh, talking of which. The game. Treasure Trap is presented in isometric
3D, with all the thrills and spills which that viewpoint entails. You
play the part of a deep sea diver complete with brass helmet, lead boots
and so on, who has descended into a sunken ship filled with gold ingots.
The object of the game is to (as if you couldn't guess) pick up all the
gold, avoid being killed and then resurface to, presumably, divide up the
loot and then squander your share in the 'Dog and Hammer' Tavern. Probably.
Of course the ship is filled with Octopii, jellyfish and other marine life
intent on stopping you from completing your mission; most of these just
swim up and down a defined path but some actually go for you!! So watch
out! Naturally your air is constantly running out so you need to
replenish this from air points handily dotted about the ship; rather
amusingly you can overfill yourself, causing your divers suit to swell up
like a balloon! Ho, ho. You do have a small supply of 'Smart Fish'
(rather like a smart bomb) to help you, which when released eat everything
in the room you're in, accompanied by an appropriate buzzsaw sound effect.
That's the only weapon you get, so it's very much a dodge-the-enemy sort
of game rather than a shoot everything that moves one.
All in all, Treasure Trap is quite a jolly romp, fairly original, fun to
play and the graphics (plus the idea of smart fish!) reflect the humourous
slant to the game. The graphics convey the idea of an undersea world
rather nicely although the in-game sound is confined mostly to bubbly
sound effects.
However, the game is fairly hard, some of the obstacles are tricky to
negotiate, especially some of the walk-ways which collapse as you move
across them. Also, the pace and agility of the main character is rather
plodding and there is an element of inertia to his movement (as you would
expect being at the bottom of the ocean) which makes it even more
difficult to avoid enemies and so on. Still, well worth a look!
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