Commodore Format Archive

There were five Seymour games in the early ’90s. Much is made of the similarity between his adventure games to those of Dizzy, and there’s good reason. Originally, the plan had been to take Dizzy out of fantasy lands and into more realistic worlds. When the idea was dropped, they had game code and no main sprite for ’em. Enter Seymour, looking sort of like a tub of lard or a potato. The reality is that, like with Dizzy, Codemasters just wanted a massive face that showed up well on 8-bit machines – so potato or lard tub, take yer pick.

Super Seymour Saves The Planet isn’t actually one of the Dizzy-esque adventures. It’s pure arcade fun, borrowing heavily from the classic Bombjack. And unlike stuff like Seymour Goes To Hollywood, it’s not a Speccy port either. This is pure C64, and it shows.

Each level’s a single screen. They’re full of barrels of toxic waste, mutants and platforms. Seymour’s there, in mask and cape, charged with cleaning up each stage. You collect the waste by simply jumping around the platforms and touching it. Which isn’t too hard: it’s the mutants you have to worry about. You kill them by jumping on them in classic console fashion from great height, but if you leave them too long they’ll spring back up. Bop them again to kill them. All of this is against a time limit, so you have a two-pronged challenge: clean up the waste quickly and avoid the baddies.

It’s simple and it’s fun. Commodore Format‘s review reckons it’s hard to get the hang of, but letters in subsequent issues suggested readers had been getting through its 30 levels in a morning. Even if you do, the colourful graphics and addictive gameplay will have you playing again from the start regardless. It’s good. CF

CF SAID: “Keeps you coming back for several hundred million last goes.” 

WE SAY: It’s not that hard, but it doesn’t really matter. 

• Read James Leach’ full review 
• Go back to the CF’s Best Of Budget homepage
• Play Seymour (requires C64 emulator)