Spellbound! description
A very interesting example of old world rarities: shoot 'em up with educational (!) bias. At first glance, it sounded impossible, but as it turns out, the magicians of the Lander Software was the power to even create such a miracle - and it came to a very exciting and worthy.
Intro: the wand is hidden in the safe Professor Grime and his five locks
We're playing for a brave boy named Hal, falling cousin girl Henrietta from the eponymous series of educational games; his task - to stop the evil doctor make-up, received from the witch Morgana - opponent mentioned cousin of our protagonist - magic stick and put it in the safe to open it, you need to collect five keys. Each such can be obtained at the end of the successful completion of the level, where you will have to confront all the minions of the mad scientist - animals (bees, molluscs, fish, aliens etc), robots, and moving or stationary equipment, including such objects that are in the latter category may be assigned only with very big stretch (like statues, spitting stones, or a needle that shoots missiles). Opponents for the most part - though not all - tend to ranged attacks; some fixed hostile objects can be destroyed, while the other is invulnerable.
The title screen The word we have to spell on the first level The helicopter in the cave Collecting letters
Stages - the number of keys - five: cave, underwater depths, the sky above the city, polar region and a space station on the asteroid. On the first and third of them the protagonist is acting, sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter, the second is in a small submarine, the fifth - at the helm of a space fighter; the fourth level is more original than just: we will have to manage the familiar helicopter, but dressed (!) in coat and boots, and to see this, believe me, worth it. Of course, all of these machines are able to shoot, and the number of charges is infinite - unlike, alas, from fuel supply which recharge does not. Scrolling of the screen is missing, and the transition to new locations is carried out by means of approaching the limits of the current zone - side, top or bottom; however, sometimes you need to find specific "point", thanks to which it will be possible a change of scenery.
Some letters are red herrings Some letters are already here
The educational element is the establishment - in a highly original way - various small (usually from four to seven letters) of words in the English language; before the start of the stage such shows on the screen (and at the same levels they will be different in the case of death and restart or to start a new game). Letters for the implementation of tasks in life fall out of defeated enemies; the latter usually (apart stationary "devices") die with one hit - and, alas, the vehicle of the protagonist; there are several "lives", and the revival going on in the place of death, not at the beginning level. Difficulty in the passage connected - in addition to the complicated architecture of the stages and very little room to maneuver, and there is therefore a high probability to fall under enemy fire, so that collecting these kind of bonuses requires strictly sequentially (so that in the end of them formed a word), whereas they appear after the death of the adversary in a random order (and among them often there are letters, generally missing in the collected word), so will have to remember which screen has remained "current" signs of the Latin alphabet and sometimes go back for them (all this, recall, in terms of continuously decreasing and not renewable fuel that can not be restored in the case of the transmutation technology after the explosion).
but the first letter of the word must come first
If "unnecessary" (now or ever) the letter blocks your path, then it can start a fire that forces her to navigate within the screen. Unfortunately, this method helps not always, and in this situation the character can only take, and then throw by pressing "Delete". At least in some cases, to do so is absolutely necessary, because there is no alternative, and it is unclear why this key, unlike the others, responsible for movement and shooting, not mentioned in the corresponding menu item and can not be changed (by the way, strongly recommend to change the default keyboard layout for playing this way is very problematic). In case of an error and losing (the last comes at the end of the fuel or when the magazine is empty of all "lives") 'll show you again the word which it was necessary to collect. Here we note that due to the various settings of the game to "adapt" to fit their preferences on several parameters: in addition to control are allowed to set the number of "lives" and the volume of the fuel tank and the option "safe" actually makes the machine the protagonist is invulnerable to enemy attacks (though no "violence" against the beings of the letters still do not get).
Graphically Spellbound! looks very nice: nice hand-drawn VGA graphics, cute enemies, objectively diverse in their surroundings and qualitatively executed levels, funny mustachioed villain, not only beautifully animated, but also skillfully voiced, - better to see and hear how he bulges his eyes and distressed (or happy) after an achieved result you. In the result we can say that this thing came out really original and exciting, as well, and agree with one reviewer from an old Amiga (because on this platform it was) magazine, recommending Spellbound! players of all ages.
Enjoy playing Spellbound! online, it can be played on your browser and is free.
Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com