Rubicon by Hewson

> GAME INFO

Rubicon

• Publisher: Hewson
• Developer: Twisted Minds
• Release Date: 1991
• Code: Fredrik Kahl
• GFX: Joachim Ljunggren
• Music: Jeroen Tel

• ZZAP64 Game Rating: 88%
• Our Game Rating: 86%
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FILE: rubiconend.zip

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> RUBICON by Hewson

• Completed & Reviewed by Vinny Mainolfi

Back in the day when this game was released, I never really paid much attention to it and didn't actually play it for a single second. Twenty years on, I was kindly sent a few ZZAP!64 magazines by Frank Gasking. One of those issues was No.77 and contained the review to Rubicon (page 14). At that point, I hadn't seen any screens or read any reviews of this game and so I was intrigued to find out what it was all about - especially after seeing that ZZAP! gave it an overall score of 88%....

Rubicon is a slick looking, platform shooter that reminds me of Hawkeye - with an element of Barbarian thrown in. The game looks fantastic (see the screenshots below), and plays really well. It mainly requires you to shoot the hell out of everything that comes towards you, but now and again there is a different challenge that after perseverance and a number of lost lives, it becomes obvious what is required to progress to the next section - though the repetitiveness of it does get to you in the end.

A cool, calm and collective game - but is the ending any good...

I wanted to share a few of the game play screens before revealing the ending.
This screen has you pitting your wits against a massive, bald sumo fighter!

Now he doesn't look too friendly!

Un-ga bun-ga.

"Run for your lives!"

He looks like a green sack of shite!

It's Halloween!

The Empire Strikes Back anyone?

Reminiscent of Yie are kung-fu.

Indiana Jones eat your heart out.

Took me ages to finish this one off :(

ALIEN!

Heh-heh... almost too cute.

WTF?!

Eye-eye...

Custard!!

"Geranimooooooooo"

The final boss...

And now the ending...

And so the ending begins...

An incoming message...

Phew!

YAAAAY :-)

The End.

HOW WAS IT COMPLETED?: I used a trained version of the game that gave me infinite lives and I played all the way though - for once!

SO WHAT HAPPENS?: Once you finish off the final boss - which is a type of Loch Ness Monsters - you see an incoming message that reads: "SAL SYSTEM ONLINE... OK. I'M IN THE CAVE NOW. EVERYTHING SEEM PEACEFUL." On the display is an image of a skull. The next message appears, which reads: "CHECKING NUCLEAR WEAPONS. NO RADIOACTIVITY. WEAPONS IN TACT." Another message appears: "MISSION COMPLETE. RETURNING TO H.Q. SAVE THE CHAMPAGNE FOR THE ARRIVAL BOYS." and our hero is shown on the screen with a smile and thumbs up. The final message reads: "TRULY GREAT! THE SWEDISH AND US GOVERNMENT SEND THEIR REGARDS TO YOU. LATER..." All this is accompanied by an ending tune.

COMMENTS:

Vinny: After having this ending in the Offline Archive for 7 years, it's satisfying to finally see it on the site...

It's a nice looking and sounding little ending. It could have been longer and had some element of animation in there, but it's still satisfying.
Matt Rogers: Not played the game but that's an 8 for me. Reminds me of Armalyte with shades of Hawkeye for the tune which sounds very Dutch...
Gaz Spence: Aka Hawkeye on steroids. The graphics are a little too garish for my tastes but the ending works well.
Andy Vaisey: Didn't play this on release, but played it in the late '90's using emulation. Enjoyed a few hours using save states then, but would have thought that on original release would have been a bit repetitive. Nice GFX that could have done with some hires overlays on some sprites but this probably would have hit the multiplexor too hard...

Decent enough ending to an all round decent enough game - ZZAP! got the review on this just about right methinks!
Andrew Fisher: The game got delayed by Hewson's financial problems, so I didn't play it on release. Tried it a few times in emulation but never persevered much. It was very much inspired by Hawkeye, with some of the team having worked on that. (It is, however, not the planned Hawkeye follow-up Bamboo, or indeed Hawkeye 2...)

As for the ending, it's pretty good, I like the way it uses the score panel as part of the display. However, it does seem to contradict the scenario of the game - I always thought that the mutants you fight were due to the leaking radiation? Still, nicely programmed and worth 7/10.
Brendan Phoenix: Had to pick myself off the ground in shock! A decent ending from a Hewson game - I must be seeing things!

An above average ending without a doubt, what a pity the majority of Hewson's other games could not have an ending similar to this one.
Stefan Guerilla: Very nice! The graphics on the screenshots look awesome! I would have been blown away back in the day I think - excellently drawn, and great use of the few colours that the C64 had.
However, I instantly associated the "Un-ga Bun-ga" quote with Berlusconi - wtf?!?

Anyway the ending is satisfying, although a bit more animation would have been nice, and a 7 seems just right.

FINAL SAY: A nice ending to a great looking game.

G.E. RATING: 7 / 10

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