A brilliant sequel to the tile-based RPG of 2012, Legend of Grimrock II is more of the same atmospheric adventuring from developer Almost Human, but with 2014‘s new content and ideas.
Grimrock 2 begins after a shipwreck; on a beach, with rocky, exterior locations, which is a surprising and refreshing way to start a game like this. You can even walk in the shallow water, which is nice, and on the very first level the shallow water holds an important secret. Don’t miss it.
LISTS: as decided by The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:
1. XBox 360
2. Game Boy Advance
3. MSX
4. Commodore 64
5. Amstrad CPC
6. SAM Coupé
7. Amiga
8. BBC Micro
9. Oric
10. Dragon 32
Of course, nothing beats the ZX Spectrum original.
See also:
Manic Miner in the Lost Levels – a homebrew download for the Nintendo DS
All hail to Miner Willy and to Matthew Smith.
The original Manic Miner, emulated perfectly on XBox 360 by Elite Systems in 2012, plus with historical background notes, “Winter Mode”, scan lines on or off, pixel filtering, cheat mode, and more.
More on The King of Grabs: 10 Best Manic Miner Conversions
More: Manic Miner on Wikipedia
The Tangerine Oric version of Manic Miner was first released in 1985 and is a reasonable attempt at the game, but certainly nothing special.
Jester Interactive‘s 2002 remake of Manic Miner must surely rate as the best version of Manic Miner available (excepting maybe the Spectrum original), although it might play too quickly for some.
The MSX version of Manic Miner was produced by Software Projects in 1984. It’s a rare British MSX title, written by Cameron Else. It’s also fast and beautifully playable.
The excellent Amstrad CPC version of Manic Miner was first released by Software Projects in 1984.
It is very close to the ZX Spectrum original in almost every respect, barring the fact that the colours are slightly less vivid and the play window is slightly smaller. Oh, and the last level is different – like an expanded (and more difficult) version of the last screen in the Speccy original.
BBC Manic Miner was released by Software Projects in 1984.
Compared to the Spectrum original it is slow and flickery, and isn’t quite as colourful, although it plays pretty much identically so isn’t too bad.
“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 would love to say that the 1990 Amiga conversion of Manic Miner is perfect, but it isn’t.
