Outback

The Good
Outback is an excellent clone of Konami’s Pooyan in which the game is set in, well, the outback. You control a kangaroo trying to protect its baby from the Swagmen parachuting down with the aid of balloons. The pulley system the player has to operate can go up and down so that the kangaroo can be at the same level as the Swagman and shoot an arrow at him. But watch out: he can retaliate by firing a boomerang at you, and if you are hit with this weapon, you will lose one of your lives. The game ends when you let your joey get abducted enough times, regardless of how many lives you have left.

Before the game, you are asked to enter your skill level. The difficulty level starts off easy so that you can get the hang of things, but as you progress through the game, the difficulty ramps up. The music plays faster and the Swagmen change their attacks. I got up to the point where they started to float diagonally, making shots difficult to make.

To blend with the setting, you can hear “Waltzin’ Matilda” serving as the background music, and although it is a little bit out of tune, it is recognizable. Another tune plays when you killed enough Swagmen, signalling the beginning of a new wave.

Each wave is set in the forest with a tree trunk to the left of the yellow house, and the canopy on top of the screen where the Swagmen parachute down. I like how your score is double-heighted, and the way the number of lives is represented by your character sprite.

The Bad
I don’t think there is anything wrong with this game.

The Bottom Line
Paramount has manage to cram so much into 3.5K, but had they went the extra effort and made the game require 8K, then they would have added animations of the Swagmen walking to the house, snatching Joey, then going off screen. But animation or not, this is an excellent Pooyan clone, complete with a nice, out of tune rendition of "Waltzin' Matilda" and good graphics to match.