Rick Dangerous!Core Design has hit the big time with it's Tomb Raider series. But it's finest hour in gameplay terms was Rick Dangerous 2. Not convinced? Read the comparison of the two games, and the characters behind them.
| Test | Rick Dangerous | Lara Croft | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magazine Rating | Amstrad Action- 97% for Rick Dangerous 2. Only two or three other games came close in the magazines 100+ issue history- I think Elite got 96% in AA1, and Turrican 2 got 95% | PC Format gave Tomb Raider 2 86%. Nearest equivalent magazine I could find to AA, even has had some of the same staff, so standards should be similar. | |
| Contribution to Earth | Has saved the earth. Twice. | Shoots endangered species. Science Ambassador for England, but I haven't seen her attending to her duties. | |
| Viewpoint | Good old side-on 2D. Simple and effective. | Annoying 3D floating camera that can't follow Lara round corners properly, leaving times with no visibility | |
| Character | Indiana Jones-type in RD1, more of a Flash Gordon in 2. Not much fuss made of him. They obviously concentrated on the game. | Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Some IDIOT in Core's marketing department hired a model to be 'Lara'. SHE'S NOT REAL!!! The Virtual Lara technology only makes it worse. Lara being interviewed? Don't make me sick! | |
| Replacement for reality | Not really. | You can pretend she's your girlfriend! | |
| Contribution to gaming | Two of the best platformers ever. | Three of the above averagest platformers ever. Hundreds of clones being even worse. Not sorting out criticisms from the first game, even in the third. Stupid overmarketing of not the best game ever. | |
| Setting a good example | Saving the world is good. | Shooting tigers is bad. She really should have those breasts operated on, they must be a real inconvenience when stealing ancient artefacts. And she doesn't even do her archaeology properly. | |
| Retro Value | If you remember the Rick Dangerous games, it will be a fond memory. | When we look back on the Tomb Raider games, we will ask, why did we let Lara replace gameplay? | |
| Marketing | Rick Dangerous leaves meal at restaurant to go and save the world. They used a photo, but never pretended he was real. | Stupid. Employ models to "be" Lara Croft to go and open things.
Stupid "Girl Power" tactics. Lara DOES NOT have "Girl Power" because 1) "Girl Power" means nothing 2) SHE'S NOT REAL!!!!! Oh, and the "Lethal, loaded, irresistible" adverts are annoying as well. As are the stupid "In your dreams" mousemats. You'd have to be pretty sad to dream about her. |
|
| Selling Out | Rick never put his name to anything | Lucozade. Lucozade is for sick people, not for scaring wolves into not attacking. Of all the people SmithKleinBeecham could have chosen, Lara is about the worst! | |
Here we can see a screenshot of Rick Dangerous 2,
here provided by the power of an Amstrad emulator. Note Rick, at the bottom of
the screen, and the robot just above him. There's a laser shooting across the
top of the screen, and there's a button which helps out with the lasers. Note
the clear view of everything going on, without stupid showing off camera tricks
This shot is from level 1: Hyde Park (where the alien spacecraft has landed).
And here's a picture from level 3: The Forests Of
Vegetablia. As they're on another planet, maybe it would be a good idea to send
LC there. With a one-way ticket. With any luck she'll gets impaled on those
nasty-looking spikes. Unfortunately, there aren't any wolves to eat her whilst
drinking Lucozade. There isn't any Lucozade either, so it averages out.
I
think it's quite clear Rick Dangerous 2 is one of the best games ever, and
deserves version three a million times more than Tomb Raider deserves a version
four. The bubble WILL burst with the sequel-o-matic unless Core innovate some
more. Suggestions: Option to play as Rick Dangerous. Updated Rick Dangerous
levels. Lucozade as item in game. Graphic detail death when trying to drink
Lucozade and wolves eat you (playing as Lara). All the wolves love Rick D,
though.
