“How to ruin a great game with bad collision detection…” That’s the overriding thought in my head when playing Manic Miner on the Dragon 32.

I honestly don’t mind the monochrome graphics, but having rectangular hit boxes around enemies is both amateurish and hugely frustrating, and Manic Miner is hamstrung by it. The first level – the classic “Central Cavern” – is made ten times more difficult than it should be due to unfair collision detection. I lost count of the number of times I died trying to jump over an enemy that I didn’t touch, or was killed by a bush that I 100% know I didn’t cross pixels with. The programmer of the Dragon version of Manic Miner, Roy Coates, might argue otherwise, but my eyes are good and I do notice these things, and the flaw is real.

Manic Miner on the Dragon 32? Get in the sea! 🙂

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More: Manic Miner on Wikipedia