Secret of Kandar

> GAME INFO

Secret of Kandar

• Publisher: Alpha Omega
• Developer: Alpha Omega
• Release Date: 1986
• Code: Andrew Taylor
• GFX: Andrew Taylor
• Music: Andrew Taylor

• ZZAP64 Game Rating: 41%
• Our Game Rating: 79%
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FILE: secretofkandarend.zip

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> SECRET OF KANDAR by Alpha Omega

• Completed & Reviewed by Brendan Phoenix
• Assisted by Inge Pedersen

At fu##ng last!!! Never before has a game caused me so much grief! Pretty much been on this one for hours!

Not a nice game to play at all - I was looking forward to completing it as I love arcade adventures, but it turned into a horrible, laborious task of guessing what object goes with which key to open which door. When there are 23 objects, 3 keys and 47 locked doors, you can imagine the different amount of combinations I tried! Boorrring! You should see the pieces of paper around my desk with scrawled maps and combinations on! The mystery remains how you get past those monsters though to grab the objects - I just walked past them with the sprite collision turned off.

The game was easy to map as most sections are colour coded by the Knights; it was just the locked doors that were the pain. Anyway, here's the ending...

Outside the final room ready to be attacked by a yellow rat!

Inside the room there is a crown.

You stick it on yer 'ead.

Cool... not!

The End.

HOW WAS IT COMPLETED?: Ok, I had a sprite collision cheat provided by Inge (thanks to him for translating the German doc as well); however, it didn't work with the bloody mouse - was down to my last life before I noticed my lives going down! Doh!

SO WHAT HAPPENS?: Well it's animated! Oh yes! (don't get too excited!) I collected the 4th Talisman and the final door open with this and the brass key (push up on joystick to start end sequence). You walk into the door and a new screen emerges with the words "HERE LIES THE CROWN OF KANDAR....TAKE IT, FOR YOU HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO BE OUR RULER" in the middle of the screen. You then walk towards the crown, place it on your head and face the screen! Game Over!

COMMENTS:

Brendan: To be honest I was pretty chuffed with the ending after all the work I put into the game. Firstly I was worried it could not be completed and then I was thinking that it would have a rubbish ending. I certainly did not expect it to have a little animated sequence (always a nice surprise).

After putting all the effort in, I think the end just about justified it. I would have seriously been pi**ed off if we got the standard congratulations text that we have seen on numerous other titles recently. Think it ends off the game quite nicely.
Vinny: OMG! This game has an actual ending sequence. I was almost certain that there wasn't going to be one! Great work by Brendan (and Inge). I'm glad I didn't sit down for hours and play through it :-) Anyway, cool ending that certainly deserves 6/10.
Frank Gasking: I know this game fairly well, as it first appeared in Commerical Breaks and the infamous Imagine Software collapse. This was being play tested originally at Ocean Software under the name of Castle Capers, but got rejected. 2 years later, the author sold it on under a different name to Power House. It's not a bad little game, but what about the ending?.... Well, its quite surprising actually... but there is a small ditty and a little animated sequence which is a lot more than I would have expected. Sure, its quite short and nothing spectacular (Just basically re-using the game's graphics - but its more satisfying than most! - 3/10.
Andrew Fisher: Very interesting, didn't know the stuff about Ocean, and not a bad little ending. I'd say it's worth about 5.
Gaz Spence: It was interesting why Ocean rejected it, given it's a little better than some of their efforts around that time (reference Highlander). Ending's ok in an old skool sort of way. Great work to get it done, Bren.
Andy Vaisey: I never actually expected an ending to this! Okay, it's not earth shattering, but there is at least something in there for those who bothered. I was not one of them. [/confession]

FINAL SAY: No new music or anything, but for an ending from 1986, I think it cuts the mustard, above average for me.

G.E. RATING: 6 / 10

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