Great review of an excellent compilation. The games really demonstrate the c64's advantages over its 8-bit peers as well. Wizball, Frankie and Yie Ar Kung Fu would be my favourites from this one.
Good to see your review of this legendary compilation. My take on the games: Head Over Heels - much like you, I never liked the isometric games much (I think we may have had this conversation before on here) and again, like you, I can appreciate this one but I never played it much as I couldn't really get into it. You could say I wanted to like it more than I actually did. This game would've also benefited from a password system. Cobra - other than the music, this was terrible. I only loaded this up twice, and the second time was only to record the music to tape! 😂 Short Circuit - some good ideas but it just wasn't fun. I echo your sentiments here entirely. Frankie - Probably my favourite game on the comp. I managed to get to the end but fell foul of completion because of the "flower power" mini game. And no, you can't "die" in this, but you can become soft-locked and not be able to finish the game, leaving you with no choice but to turn it off and reload. Arkanoid - I always enjoyed this one. I'm surprised you didn't mention the title music. ;) Wizball - a classic. No more needs to be said really. I managed to beat this single player too (pro tip: if you stay close to the ground, enemy bullets can't get you ;)). The Great Escape - I enjoyed this one as well and didn't mind the Spectrum look and feel too much, though I do agree they could've actually optimised this for the C64 and given it some colour. I did manage to escape but got caught and sent back. Never worked out what I was supposed to do to get around that. :/ Yie Ar Kung Fu - a fantastic conversion (cheap stun-locking enemies notwithstanding). I did beat this one as well too. :)
I had THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (boxed, tape) for my Commodore 64 in the early 2010's. I still love that compilation 😺👍🕹️. Unfortunately, i made a bad mistake and sold it away at a flea market in Myyrmäki, Vantaa (Finland 🇫🇮) in August 2013 😹. Problably, because i need a money 😹. HEAD OVER HEELS is definitely the best of the compilation 😺👍🕹️. COBRA is the worst 😹... Thank you 😸😺👍.
In terms of value for money, no one could really complain getting Wizball, Arkanoid, Head Over Heels and Frankie Goes to Hollywood in there. Short Circuit and Cobra are a bit meh, but there's solid entertainment across the eight games. I'd slightly disagree with a couple of the game ratings: Head Over Heels for me deserves at least a 9 - once you master picking up when jumping, it's a game changer - and combining Head and Heels together really opens the game out once that is done. Arkanoid also is much more playable with a NEOS Mouse or paddles, and as I had a NEOS mouse with my C64 (I got that bundle) then it showed what could be done. As a result I'd probably say 9 if you have either mouse or paddles, 8 if you don't. Wizball of course will always get a solid 10 from me too, so spot on with that one.
I knew my rating for HoH would be a bit controversial. I hadn't played it for decades and found it quite frustrating, but I'm not disputing it's high status in most people's eyes 🙂
Only Arkanoid and Yie Ar Kung Fu were of any interest to me on this compilation, I give them 7.5 and 8 out of 10 respectively. Head over Heels technically is programmers headache once you understand the complexities of all what goes on calculation wise, but I could never get into the game despite having a very long chat with its author Colin Porch at Zzap!Live 2024, who was showcasing Head over Heels 2 - so, I give it 5. As for Wizball - sorry, anything that looks like sprout on the cover, is enough to keep me away. It's with the remainder and all the rest get 4 out of 10.
@@witchfinder1976 No, never did like it - I know you played the Amiga version through to completion, but I could never get to grips with it. I'm in the minority I suppose, but we can't like everything.
Some amazing games, and some lame ones. Perhaps Ye Ar Kung Fu was due out on budget when they released this, and they just added the game in. But it doesn't make sense to call the pack Magnificent Seven, when there are no cowboy games and 8 in total, even if one is labelled Free. Maybe they meant there are 7 playable games on there, plus Cobra? Great Escape is 9.5 out of 10 for me, Wizball is 10, Arkanoid is 8, Frankie is 8. Head over Heels is still worth a 7. Yie Ar gets a 6. Cobra is 2, Short Curcuit is 3, and I beat that one many times. I'd probably have enjoyed this more than the Hollywood Pack, basically because we dont get Top Gun with this one.
They were clearly very keen to use the title for this compilation, but adding the "free" game does just make it a bit silly. Good to see your scores for the games 🙂
Head of Heels was a regular play, i could only get as far as getting them to meet which felt like winning but without being able to save the game by the time you reach that point it was time to turn it off lol, theses days i prefer to play it on the spectrum as it's a bit faster, same with Great escape another favourite, While Short Circuit was a bit naff i use to play it all the time probably because i loved the film and the music. In the minority but i really dislike Yie Ar Kung Fu.
Great review of an excellent compilation. The games really demonstrate the c64's advantages over its 8-bit peers as well. Wizball, Frankie and Yie Ar Kung Fu would be my favourites from this one.
Couldn't agree more! 🙂
Good to see your review of this legendary compilation.
My take on the games:
Head Over Heels - much like you, I never liked the isometric games much (I think we may have had this conversation before on here) and again, like you, I can appreciate this one but I never played it much as I couldn't really get into it. You could say I wanted to like it more than I actually did. This game would've also benefited from a password system.
Cobra - other than the music, this was terrible. I only loaded this up twice, and the second time was only to record the music to tape! 😂
Short Circuit - some good ideas but it just wasn't fun. I echo your sentiments here entirely.
Frankie - Probably my favourite game on the comp. I managed to get to the end but fell foul of completion because of the "flower power" mini game. And no, you can't "die" in this, but you can become soft-locked and not be able to finish the game, leaving you with no choice but to turn it off and reload.
Arkanoid - I always enjoyed this one. I'm surprised you didn't mention the title music. ;)
Wizball - a classic. No more needs to be said really. I managed to beat this single player too (pro tip: if you stay close to the ground, enemy bullets can't get you ;)).
The Great Escape - I enjoyed this one as well and didn't mind the Spectrum look and feel too much, though I do agree they could've actually optimised this for the C64 and given it some colour. I did manage to escape but got caught and sent back. Never worked out what I was supposed to do to get around that. :/
Yie Ar Kung Fu - a fantastic conversion (cheap stun-locking enemies notwithstanding). I did beat this one as well too. :)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂 Pretty similar to mine for the most part too!
I had THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
(boxed, tape) for my Commodore 64 in the early 2010's.
I still love that compilation 😺👍🕹️.
Unfortunately, i made a bad mistake
and sold it away at a flea market in
Myyrmäki, Vantaa (Finland 🇫🇮) in
August 2013 😹.
Problably, because i need a money 😹.
HEAD OVER HEELS is definitely the best of the compilation 😺👍🕹️.
COBRA is the worst 😹...
Thank you 😸😺👍.
Noooo, definitely a mistake to sell this one! 😢
Nice Comp. Some Great games on this one. Great Value back in the day & probably even now. Good Review.
Thanks! Yeah it's got some real classics on there, even if not all of them are to my taste 🙂
In terms of value for money, no one could really complain getting Wizball, Arkanoid, Head Over Heels and Frankie Goes to Hollywood in there. Short Circuit and Cobra are a bit meh, but there's solid entertainment across the eight games.
I'd slightly disagree with a couple of the game ratings:
Head Over Heels for me deserves at least a 9 - once you master picking up when jumping, it's a game changer - and combining Head and Heels together really opens the game out once that is done.
Arkanoid also is much more playable with a NEOS Mouse or paddles, and as I had a NEOS mouse with my C64 (I got that bundle) then it showed what could be done. As a result I'd probably say 9 if you have either mouse or paddles, 8 if you don't.
Wizball of course will always get a solid 10 from me too, so spot on with that one.
I knew my rating for HoH would be a bit controversial. I hadn't played it for decades and found it quite frustrating, but I'm not disputing it's high status in most people's eyes 🙂
I’d buy this for a modern system on strength of Wizball alone!
It would be interesting to see modern interpretations of some of these games 🙂
I saw there was a fan remake of Wizball in the 2000s. I don’t enjoy playing games on my PC that much though.
Only Arkanoid and Yie Ar Kung Fu were of any interest to me on this compilation, I give them 7.5 and 8 out of 10 respectively. Head over Heels technically is programmers headache once you understand the complexities of all what goes on calculation wise, but I could never get into the game despite having a very long chat with its author Colin Porch at Zzap!Live 2024, who was showcasing Head over Heels 2 - so, I give it 5. As for Wizball - sorry, anything that looks like sprout on the cover, is enough to keep me away. It's with the remainder and all the rest get 4 out of 10.
Harsh! Especially on Wizball. I guess you never got into it at the time?
@@witchfinder1976 No, never did like it - I know you played the Amiga version through to completion, but I could never get to grips with it. I'm in the minority I suppose, but we can't like everything.
Some amazing games, and some lame ones. Perhaps Ye Ar Kung Fu was due out on budget when they released this, and they just added the game in. But it doesn't make sense to call the pack Magnificent Seven, when there are no cowboy games and 8 in total, even if one is labelled Free. Maybe they meant there are 7 playable games on there, plus Cobra?
Great Escape is 9.5 out of 10 for me, Wizball is 10, Arkanoid is 8, Frankie is 8. Head over Heels is still worth a 7. Yie Ar gets a 6. Cobra is 2, Short Curcuit is 3, and I beat that one many times.
I'd probably have enjoyed this more than the Hollywood Pack, basically because we dont get Top Gun with this one.
They were clearly very keen to use the title for this compilation, but adding the "free" game does just make it a bit silly. Good to see your scores for the games 🙂
Head of Heels was a regular play, i could only get as far as getting them to meet which felt like winning but without being able to save the game by the time you reach that point it was time to turn it off lol, theses days i prefer to play it on the spectrum as it's a bit faster, same with Great escape another favourite, While Short Circuit was a bit naff i use to play it all the time probably because i loved the film and the music. In the minority but i really dislike Yie Ar Kung Fu.
HoH is definitely one of those deeper games that needed a lot of time investment. Probably best played on an emulator with save states nowadays.