Seaside Special

The Good
Seaside Special is an action game with some political satire thrown in for good measure. The object is to gather up ten pieces of seaweed on a beach, then proceed to 10 Downing Street and throw the seaweed at British politicians that were around in 1985. Once you run out of seaweed ammo, you go back to the beach, but with the difficulty cranked up.

The only music in the game blends in with the overall theme of the game. It doesn't play as you collect the ten pieces of seaweed, but hearing it during play will drive you insane. Sound effects are minimal, but the sound of the gun the guard fires at you, as well as the sound of the tide coming in.

Even though everything on the beach looks ruggy, but your enemies are animated nicely. The moon at the scene's top center and the cemetery to its right both looks good. No. 10 looks exactly as it is now, and the "polytikians" are well designed.

There are several "Polytikians" that pop their head out, but since I'm not British, I can't really tell you what their names are - apart from Maggie herself. While you are throwing seaweed at them, hey will try bombing you with different objects. Some of these objects are funny, because you wouldn't expect these to be thrown at you. An example of this is the bible with the red cover.

I have yet to see Maggie, who appears when you hit one of each Polytikian five times. This doesn't matter as you don't lose the game even if you don't see her. You just advance to the more challenging level anyway. I found each level hard, because the second time you enter Rotaway beach, there are about fifty rocks that you must navigate by and you have to avoid the jellyfish and the guard in such a limited space. And if you don't get around these rocks as quickly as possible, your radiation level is filled.

The Bad
A few graphics in the game are horrible. Since the water that you can enter is toxic, it is supposed to be green, not white. There is a strange, flashing object near the cemetery, but I found no purpose to it. The game could also make do with more than two levels. What is most annoying about this game is if you are close to collecting ten pieces of seaweed and lose a life, you have to go back to the start.

The Bottom Line
Seaside Special is a decent game that was released only for the Commodore 64, and appeals to anyone who always have dreams of throwing things at politicians. The game provides some humor, in the stuff the Polytikians throw down at you. Some of the graphics and the music is not bad, and they blend with the overall theme of the game. Even as a person who is unfamiliar with British politics, I can still pretend the Polytikians they are actually politicians that serve my own country.