Trolls

Moby ID: 6522
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Description official description

This platform game features the small blue-haired cutesy creatures that were popular around the time (although surely not with most computer game buyers?). You play a Troll roaming the levels in the hope of rescuing as many baby trolls as possible - each level gives you a set minimum to retrieve before you can leave via the Pigstop.

Initially, you have no weapons, and contact with the nasties costs you energy, but a Yo-Yo can be collected, which can be used not only to kill enemies, but also to smash blocks away and open up paths, and even (with practice) tied to a ledge to allow you to swing across a gap.

Throughout the levels, you will find the letters B,O,N,U,S, and G released from bonus balloons or on killing an enemy - if at the end of a level your letters spell out Bonus or Bogus you go to the appropriate extra level. The former has a chance to gain extra lives, the latter must be escaped quickly to avoid losing a life.

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Credits (DOS version)

7 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 18 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 13 ratings with 3 reviews)

A cutesy platform affair that doesn’t add anything new or exciting to the fray.

The Good
Looking for something positive, you get an introductory FMV sequence that’s not on the floppy version.

The music tracks on the disc do actually help liven up the proceedings a bit. What you get are some fairly pleasant tunes that compliment the somewhat leisurely pace. A good selection of meaty sound and speech samples round out the audio side of things nicely.

I was rather taken by the Soda pop world. These levels play sort of like the swimming parts of Sega’s Alex Kidd, married with standard platform antics, and I thought this combination worked quite well.

Also of note was Media land, which combines a black and white foreground with a colourful background that makes for an interesting design contrast. This also made to discern between the two planes a lot easier than most of the other designs.

Some inspiration from the old classic Bubble Bobble is that you can collect letters to spell out words like BONUS or BOGUS, that grant similar timed sequences as for the aforementioned game.

The game scrolls reasonably smoothly in all directions, and there aren’t any genuine problems with slowdowns, since there aren’t any really intensive visual routines. The main Troll sprite is well animated.

The Bad
The pace isn’t exactly fast, and if you try to hustle a bit you normally end up dead. The game levels move all over the place, So the play doesn’t always flow seamlessly.

The yo-yo is somewhat difficult to use for the grappling hook function, and getting a positive lock on a platform can be a very trying exercise in frustration. This can be quite annoying since it is sometimes necessary to get to new areas. A potentially decent idea poorly implemented.

This game doesn’t employ the CD-32's battery back-up, or have any kind of password system. If you want to complete it, you have to do it in one sitting.

In terms of controls, the multi button controller hasn’t been utilised. An option to use a button for jumping would have been welcome, as it is your stuck with pushing up on the directional pad.

The levels are generally too cluttered. A cleaner and simpler design usually works better in this type of fare.

The game itself hasn’t been enhanced in any way from the Amiga original floppy version.

The Bottom Line
History dictated that Amiga CD-32 games would be synonymous with the term shovel-ware, and this title was no exception.

On top of this, one of the pack in games with the machine, Oscar, also from Flair, is essentially the exact same game as this, bar different themes and of course the licensed little ugly pugs. Both games even share sound effects and graphics, making this an exceptionally cheeky outing for a quick buck.

Trolls is a fairly playable platform romp, which seems okay in the short term, but is marred by a decidedly slow pace and particularly gaudy visual style which doesn’t exactly entice. Yet another mediocre entry for the ill-fated system. Rest assured, a certain hedgehog and plumber didn’t lose any sleep over these critters.

Amiga CD32 · by Nick Drew (397) · 2006

An overall fun game that gives classic game fun a twist.

The Good
The storyline in general is pretty vague; it's basically that you have to just collect baby trolls and get through levels. The game is filled with bright colors and pretty trippy backgrounds, but it all looks great. The music is absolutely fabulous, it just adds to the crazy cuteness of the game.

The Bad
it's really difficult, playing without cheats anyways.

The Bottom Line
A hard but interesting game that is tons of fun, and definitely a great game.

DOS · by mar w (2) · 2006

A collection of nice touches, desperately searching for a surrounding game

The Good
It looks quite pretty, with much nicer backdrops than the PC version, and has a certain cuteness.

The level designs are unusual and imaginative, the newspaper level with the headlines in the background (my favourites include 'Mirukl cyure four disleksyer' and 'Freda Scar ate my pay'), the level built around pencils, rulers and desks, and the enemies including jumping lamps which fire electrical bolts at you.

Some of the character is superb, especially the 'surprised elephant' restart point and the pigstop at the end of the level.

The Bad
The gameplay is quite lacking in focus at times, with the level designs sprawling, the direction to progress in being very unclear, and often short on baddies. When you lose lives, it's often because you can't see things coming at you, or it's too difficult to position around static enemies that you have to hit at the right angle to kill.

Although it's a neat idea, the whole bonus/bogus thing is a little unforgiving, because it's so easily to accidentally collect the G as you try to avoid a nasty or collect something else.

Those balloons containing goodies are decidedly uninteresting, and just waste your time.

The Bottom Line
A platform game with some neat touches, but essentially weighed down by some inherent design problems the cartoony touches can't fix. Suffers from similar problems to Assassin and Zool, so if you liked those you may go for this.

Amiga · by Martin Smith (81669) · 2004

Discussion

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How to use cheats? Nowhere Girl (8680) Mar 3, 2020

Trivia

Hidden Message

This message can be found in the program executable:

"This game was written on a very slow schneider 10mhz 286 with lots of wait states. If for some reason on your very fast xxxx 25mh 486 this game seems to be fast or unplayable, do no blame us for it was a penny pinching boss who would not buy us reasonable pc's to work on. signed THE PROGRAMMERS OF FLAIR SOFTWARE"

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  • MobyGames ID: 6522
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Roger Wilco.

Amiga CD32, Amiga, Commodore 64 added by Martin Smith.

Additional contributors: Servo, Alaka, Martin Smith, Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 30, 2002. Last modified December 18, 2023.