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BEYOND THE FORBIDDEN FOREST
REVIEWS
Connoisseurs of C64 games may remember the excellent
Forbidden Forest of a couple of years ago. Well, you guessed
it, this is the sequel. For those of you not lucky enough to see
the original the game went something like this. You armed
with your trusty bow and arrow must run through the
forbidden forest avoiding and killing the monsters that are
out to get you. The nasties appeared in waves and such
creatures as giant frogs and skeletons were after you.
When this program first appeared a bit of an outcry
developed in some of the magazines since the graphics in the
game were extremely gruesom, especially the spurting blood
when you killed or were killed. Well you'll no doubt be
pleased to know that Beyond the Forbidden Forest offers
the same amount of horror but with an even better game.
According to the instruction sheet, Beyond the
Forbidden Forest is a game written in four dimensions. The
four dimensions are described as the-following. Left and
right movement as you would expect and the passage octime
as with the original game, but now you can also move into
and out of the background. This means that instead of
simply running left and right in front of all the objects it is
now possible to run behind them to hide from a monster or
simply charge into the background to attack a particularly
ugly looking monster. This added dimension certainly adds
something to the game and makes it all the more difficult to
play. One extremely nice touch is the way that both'You and
the monsters get smaller as you move 'into' the picture, the
fact that you get smaller the farther away you are is
something that many games overlook.
As previously mentioned you are armed with a bow and
arrow. Controlling this at first is a little bit of a problem but
you soon become used to it. The reason that it is a little trick
is that on a press of the fire button your aim is taken
alternately higher and lower, whatever position you release
the fire button in is the height that your arrow is fired at.
Once you are used to this then control is excellent though at
the start of the game you will no doubt find your precious
arrows flying off nowhere near the monster.
As for the monsters, well you couldn't hope to meet a
more disgusting bunch. Firstly you'll have to face the worms
which pop out of the ground with a frequency that tells you
that they certainly don't like you. Get too close to one of
these and you're sure to be pulled under ground for dinner.
Watch the screen and you'll soon see the worm re-appear
YOUR COMMODORE november 1986:60
and regurgitate what is left of you back into the playing area,
told you the game was blood thirsty.
Once you have dispatched the worms it's on to the
dragonfly. Again take careful aim before this enormous
sized fly carries you off for its dinner, accompanied by the
usual gory effects of course. Following its on to face the
chimera.
As you kill a monster then some mysterious power gives
you a golden arrow, to use later in the game. Should you
loose a life then arrows are taken away and you are reincarnated
to fight once more.
Once evening arrives, and if you have enough arrows,
then its off to fight the monsters in the underground caverns.
Firstly you have to face the bats swooping at you from all
directions. Next comes the hydra, a four headed monster
breathing fire at you from each mouth, not a pretty sight.
Should you ever defeat this then it's on to face the ultimate
monster 'The Demonorgon', firing bolts of fire at you from
each eye this is a monster that must be despatched very
quickly, if not then it will certainly despatch you.
Playing Beyond the forbidden forest is rather like playing
the part of the hero in some epic horror movie. The
animation of the monsters is excellent and the atmospheric
music certainly helps set the scene.
If you aren't squeamish then I suggest that this is one
game that is a must in your collection. However, don't play it
too late at night. you never know what might happen.
TOUCHLINE Name: Beyond the Forbidden Forest.
Machine: C64. Supplier: US GOLD, Units 2/3,
Ho/ford Way, Ho/ford, Birmingham, B6 7AX. Tel: 021-
356-3388.
Originality: 6/10. Graphics: 9/10. Playability: 8/10. Value:
9/10.
CUO kimlasAa
M M M I M Z O M M = Z W .
0 1 U = K ; f f n U V
W.A.R.
Scrolling space battle games certainly received a boost in
popularity when Uridium appeared. W.A.R. is certainly a
variant on this theme complete with gigantic scrolling
spaceship, enemy craft hot on your tail and of course lots of
things to shoot.
At first glance W.A.R. does seem to offer a great deal of
excitement with an excellent scrolling background and lots