Alley Cat was one of the "games of my youth". Well, I'm still pretty young - but I already have the memories of times, when I didn't really undrestand anything about computers and all the english words I knew were "hello", "bye" and "oh, shit!" - and among games I've played on my next-gen gaming system (386 DX40 with 8 (!) MB RAM), among classics like Doom, Civilization, Dune 2 or Prince of Persia, there was a small arcade with CGA graphics and a kittie as the title hero - Alley Cat.
Therefore, it was a nice surprise, when I've seen Alley Cat remake in Retro Remakes forums some time before the deadline of the 2006 big compo. I really looked forward this entry. It wasn't completed in time, but the author didn't give up and published the final version in the end of the year 2006.
Alley Cat 2, as it is called, isn't the best freeware arcade game ever. Well, I just hoped for a little bit better graphics (the main scene with the big house is great, but some of the rooms aren't so good), maybe a few more sound effects - and I found the gameplay kind of difficult and sometimes quite frustrating. On the other hand - that's the problem of many old games - and maybe I'm just too comfortable. Alley Cat 2 has its bright side, too. It's still a funny game, maybe a little infantile, but generally appealing. Beating a high score functions as a real motivation there, which is great.
Do I really have to be objective there? I loved Alley Cat, and Alley Cat 2 is a good remake. It has some flaws, maybe, but it's my old love - and old love can't turn to rust...
No comments:
Post a Comment