B.C. II: Grog's Revenge

The Good
When Sydney released B.C.'s Quest for Tires in 1983, it won several awards for best animation, graphics, and sound. A sequel was released one year later, and what's great about it is instead of reusing the Moon Patrol type of gameplay, the authors opted for a more difficult game. This time Thor has to navigate a series of mountains, collecting as many as one-hundred clams and bring them to the toll booth so that he can move on to the next mountain and eventually discover the Meaning of Life.

The game screen is split into three sections. Underneath the game screen, the game records how many clams you have collected, and next to this is a map that you can use to check your surroundings. Thor's position is the white square and you can see the bridge at the top of the mountain, indicated by the brown horizontal line.

Grog's Revenge introduces us to two more characters from the B.C. comic books - Grog and Peter. Grog patrols the mountains in search of Thor and put an end to his task. The player will know when Grog is around - a yellow square will come toward them. Then it's either run back the way you can or go into one of the caves that you pass. To make matters worse, Grog has let his alligator loose further up, and it will eat the unicycle's tires resulting in a loss of life.

Thor's only hope of escaping is through the caves, and they are the only way to get to Peter who runs the toll booth. Getting through them is difficult since there is a lot of stalagmites in you way. More often than not, I avoided one stalagmite only to crash into another.

But any cave can lead you to the toll booth, but you have to find which one. You might go around in circles, but this is worth it because you are making sure that Grog doesn't collect more clams than you. By going through more than my fair share of caves, I was able to collect two-hundred clams, more than the required amount. And when you go over the amount when you reach the toll booth, the remaining clams are carried over to the next mountain.

The graphics are colorful and reflect the quality used in other C-64 games. The characters are drawn nicely and reflect what they look like in the comics. They are much bigger than what they were in the first game, and the map is useful for checking your surroundings. There are actually animations of his unicycle moving as you move the joystick left or right. Of all the animations that result in Thor losing a life is the one where he goes splat against the wall, and the unicycle's tire bouncing off the cliff.

There is no true background music to speak off. However, a warning melody can be heard when Grog approaches you; and in the caves, you actually hear the unicycle moving along. The sound effects really blend in with what you are doing and they reflect the quality of those effects used in early cartoon shows.

The controls are real easy to get used to, since the control method is the same as that used in the first game. The only difference is that you have to move the joystick in a diagonal pattern to avoid most obstacles in your path.

Before the game begins, you can choose from three mountains. Each mountain is difficult than the first, by doubling the amount of caves and introducing curves in the path and so on; and these mountains add a bit of variety to the game. If you find the first mountain easy, then you could have a go at the second mountain, then the third.

The Bad
When you reach the last mountain, you would eventually discover the Meaning of Life. For anyone who expects a good thing to come out of it will be disappointed. When you get to the last mountain, a huge sign tells Thor that the Meaning of Life is to the right of him, but Grog is already waiting for you and that means to enter the cave to your left and find a way around him. Unfortunately, you can't move and you have no choice but to end the game. Bah!

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Grog's Revenge is a lot harder with you having to navigate your way up mountains and through caves to reach the toll booth. Just make sure you have 100 clams to get to the next mountain. The graphics and sound are well designed and the animations are funny. It is fairly easy to get used to the controls as well. It is a shame that the Meaning of Life can lead to your unfortunate demise.