A Dizzy History…
The Excellent Dizzy Collection was the last Dizzy game ever to see release. As the Oliver Twins left Codemasters in November 1993, the rights to Dizzy were owned by both parties meaning no further Dizzy games would be made from here on.
Within this bundle are 3 different Dizzy games. The main game included is ‘Dizzy The Adventurer’. This is an enhanced version of the original Dizzy adventure game, ‘Prince of the Yolkfolk’. The other two games bundled in are spins off from the main adventure series. ‘Go! Dizzy Go!’ being a Pac-Man style game and ‘Panic Dizzy’ being a Dizzy themed Puzzle game.
Prior to this release, Codemasters most recent failure ‘The Aladdin Deck Enhancer’ for the NES (US Only) had another 3 Dizzy games in development for it. The Oliver Twins didn’t want these games going to waste and began porting them over to the Sega Game Gear & Sega Master System as standalone titles. Codemasters didn’t feel too comfortable about them being released individually and made them squeeze as much as they could onto one cartridge, three games. They were all set to package up
‘Dizzy The Adventurer’, ‘Go! Dizzy Go!’ and ‘Wonderland Dizzy’, onto the cartridge however further problems arrived with Codemasters saying they didn’t want two Adventure games (Wonderland & Adventurer) on one compilation. Wonderland was replaced with Dizzy Panic.
The game was eventually released in November 1993, but only for the Sega Game Gear. The game only ever saw release in the UK and Australia, making it very desirable to Dizzy fans worldwide.
Rolling on…
Upon booting up The Excellent Dizzy Collection and getting beyond the usual Copyright screens, the first thing you notice on the title screen is the awful female digitized voice saying “The Excellent Dizzy Collection”. At the time of its release and given the hardware its on, its rather impressive but it hasn’t aged well at all. The main menu as you expect, sends you straight through to each game, also offering language selection for the main game too.
Dizzy The Adventure/Prince Of The Yolkfolk has often been referred to as the most accessible Dizzy Adventure game in the series. The main criticism of Dizzy games is usually regarding the vast array of screens to adventure through. At first this may not sound like a criticism, however taking into consideration how unforgiving Dizzy can be at times, the length of the game can become quite an obstacle. Undoubtedly, the most obvious struggle in Dizzy is controlling the jumps. With Dizzy being egg shaped, he is programed to act like an egg after jumping, by rolling uncontrollably. There are many times you find yourself cursing Dizzy for rolling into obstacles such as water, fire or enemies, due to his unlucky egg shape, making the game a real challenge at times.
To advance in Dizzy The Adventurer, you much collect items around the map and use them in their correct places to activate events. At the start of the game you find yourself stuck in a underground room with a locked door. As there are no keys around, you must find another way out. Inside this room lies some Matches, some Dry Grass and a Bucket of Water (How convenient!). Place the Grass by the door, set fire to it with the matches and put the fire out with the Water to advance. The puzzles at times are relatively straight forward at times, but the problem lies with transporting items from A to B.
Screenshots:
Excellent Dizzy Collection Gameplay Screenshots
Collectors information:
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Final thoughts:
You can’t fault The Excellent Dizzy Collection; they’ve packed in three solid games for the Game Gear with great replay value. Although the game will make you tear your hair out at times, it’s fairly short and very accessible.
With the added history behind this game, its a great conversation piece for any Retro Gaming collection.