Mayhem in Monsterland

The Good
Lets get this straight, I owned this game during the final days of the C64 and played it solidly for months. Sure it crashed on occasion but in no way did this make the game unplayable and it did NOT happen very often. My experience of the game bares no resemblance to the previous reviewer. With that out of the way, I can now say how great the game actually was! The speed, looks, sound, humour and sheer downright playability of this game made it a truly memorable experience and a fitting swansong for the C64 (the amount of time spent working on and perfecting the game meant that by the time its release date came around, the C64 was in it's final days as a commercial machine).

The Bad
I really, really cannot think of anything... Mayhem was a defining moment in gaming for me, if not just for the sheer technical achievement then for the fond memories of the hours spent playing on it and the initial amazement at what could be done on the humble 8 -bit.. I suppose the only thing I could say is that I wish it had come out earlier during the C64's lifespan. It would have stood as a defining benchmark to other publishers and developers on what could be achieved with the right amount of effort, dedication and skill. It may even have extended the life of the machine too, showing that it could keep up with the latest wave of 16-bit games consoles that eventually saw off the C64.

The Bottom Line
I would not want to play this game again. Time marches on and compared to current games, I am sure the game would look and play very basic. My memories would be marred. But that does not make this game any less of an all time classic. The previous reviewer does the game down and mocks its 100% rating in Commodore Format Magazine but I feel it was a justified score. I'm not saying it is the best game ever made. That would be ridiculous. What I am saying is that this is by far and away the best game to ever appear on the C64 and wrung every bit of processing power from it to create the best platformer possible for that particular format. Would that not justify 100%?