New Zealand Story review - Nintendo Entertainment System

Tiki the Kiwi is in a bit of a dilemma. Why? Cos' evil and mean Sammy the Seal has kidnapped all his chums and has locked them up in cages all around a surreal landscape. Sounds weird? New Zealand Story certainly is.

But who cares when it's as much fun as this. The idea is to rescue all of Tiki's chums by running and jumping around the multidirectionally scrolling landscape and reaching the cage before the timer for that particular screen reaches zero.

There are all sorts of horrid baddies making life difficult, but Tiki is armed with a bow so he can spang off arrows at the aggressors. A variety of cute power-up weapons are also available, including balloons and flying craft which Tiki can use to get to the more inaccessible parts of the landscape.

What the Mean Machines staff thought

New Zealand Story is quite a creditable conversion of the ageing coin-op, with plenty of decent levels to travel through and lots of variety. The graphics are great, with large sprites and excellent backdrops that are very similar to the coin-op's. The sound is superb - the annoying tinkly tunes of the coin-op have been "re-mixed" for the Nintendo with swingsome drums and decent instruments. The problem with New Zealand Story is that the action is just a tad too easy - I'll warrant that any decent games player will see most of the game during their first gaming session. Other than that, there is little wrong with New Zealand Story. Newcomers to the platform genre should lap it up.

This conversion certainly captures the look and feel of the coin-op original. The graphics are completely faithful to the arcade game from the whacked-out backdrops to the super-cute sprites and the music has been remixed and sounds even better than it did before! But there is a problem - the game's just a bit too easy. On your first session you can get miles into the game, and it doesn't take too long until you complete the game entirely. It's a real shame that there isn't more of a challenge, because as it stands I can only recommend this to Nintendo novices. Those who've played the New Zealand Story coin-op for any length of time just won't get their money's worth.