Do-Do

The Good
Pengo was an arcade game from Sega where you were a penguin trying to crush these creatures known as Sno-Bees in a maze of ice blocks. As far as I know, the game was officially released for Atari machines as well as the Game Gear. There were a lot of unofficial clones released for the 8-bit systems as well. The one I am reviewing is Do-Do & the Sno-Bees released by Blaby Computer Games, a company that specializes in unofficial coin-op ports for the ZX Spectrum.

There are only a couple of things that I like about the game in general. The loading screen well designed, but I wish that served as the actual title screen. The setting up of the maze is consistent with Sega's version of the game, and the ice blocks are drawn properly. One nifty feature that was already in Pengo as well of this version is that you can use the blue border to your advantage. You can use it to kill any Sno-Bee around you.

The Bad
So when I went to play this game, I couldn't control Do-Do properly. That is because the game is controlled only by the keyboard using the keys 5-8 located at the top of the keyboard. There is no joystick option, but that is the sort of bullshit from Blaby. Why couldn't the keys be at least be spread out instead of being huddled together?

Also, the graphics are awful. Let's start with Do-Do himself. Why is one half of him green and the other half orange, and more important, why is he in the game in the first place? The developers obviously intended to make the main character a bird, so the game might as well be set in a jungle where he has to push boulders. Then, it would be a Boulder Dash rip-off, and there would be a reason why the Sno-Bees would look like ordinary bees.

There isn't one good thing that I can say about the animation. When you move Do-Do, you don't see him turn around and face the direction you choose, then walk in that direction. No, he is always facing you while he takes one big step in the same direction. And why does he turn red when he is touched by a Sno-Bee.

The sounds are rather annoying, starting from the title screen where all you hear is the equivalent of Road Runner heating a plate of bird seed. The most irritating sound effect can be heard when the words Game Over appears in a ticker at the top of the screen.

The Bottom Line
In closing, Do-Do & the Sno-Bees is not a very good game. The graphics and animation are bad, and it spends too much time making silly noises then you do playing it. If you want to play Pengo on your ZX Spectrum, I suggest that you find a copy of Pingo by Profisoft. It is much better and contains all the features from the coin-op.