You may
recall that LITTLE DEVIL was one of two Red Rat titles grabbing the
headlines last issue following the absurd decision by a certain
British distributor, along with others, not to stock it, supposedly
to prevent gullible Atarians being harmed by its alleged occult
content(?!?). If past events in the publishing field are anything to
judge by, this should (hopefully) ensure Red Rat of a best-seller,
as Joe Public spares no inconvenience to experience what he is
supposed not to see. This won't be a particularly difficult task, as
Red Rat can supply the game directly.
What's all the commotion about then? Well, sorry to disappoint you
folks but LITTLE DEVIL is about as worthy of an 'X' rating as an
episode of `Rainbow'! Don't let this put you off though. The game is
in fact an excellent implementation of the platform variety, the
objective being to collect items from each screen so as to progress
onto further levels where the adversaries have multiplied. These
items just happen to be lost souls floating in a limbo existence in
the bowels of Hades. It's up to you, as the Little Devil himself, to
free the souls and thus advance onto further realms, taking you
nearer and nearer to Castle Despair where King Mordread's imprisoned
daughter — Princess Linarta — anxiously awaits her gallant rescuer!
There would appear to be only four different screens in the game,
but this shortcoming is more than compensated for by the impressive
design-work forming the backdrop to each one, and the fact that
controlling the Little Devil's jumps around each screen in the time
limit allowed (twenty-five seconds!) is certainly not a feat to be
taken lightly! It starts off fairly easily but after level one,
extra static obstacles are added increasing the challenge immensely.
Running out of time or brushing with a guardian ghostie causes the
Devil to forfeit a life (in Hades??), so to make your quest a little
less impossible, a number of life-prolonging facilities are
available. For instance, the time limit can be reset several times,
and 'Arkanoid' style floating symbols can be captured to provide
extra bonus points and stun the nasties for short periods.
Additional resets and lives are automatically obtained upon
completion of certain stages of the game.
I haven't mentioned the sound — this should be enough to tell you
that it isn't exactly one of Red Rat's finest efforts in this
respect, the music being a somewhat unconvincing rendition of Scott
Joplin's `Elite Syncopation' — but overall LITTLE DEVIL can
definitely claim to be another fine and much welcome addition to the
range, one that will keep platform enthusiasts coming back for more
to try and improve their standings in the highscore table, thus
assuring a super value for money purchase.
Paul Rixon
Published by Red Rat. £7.95 on cassette - £9.95 on disk -
1 player with joystick
