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Sabre Wulf

Ian HamiltonIan Hamilton
edited March 2004 in Games
I just got my hands on Sabre Wulf for the GBA. It is completely different from the original but really excellent all the same. One really cool thing is there are references to other Ultimate games littered throughout. For instance, in the mayor's house there is a mat with the Atic Atac inlay artwork and also a statue similar to the cover of Underwurlde. Also all the areas are named after old games.

In a word, brilliant!!!

Necros!
Post edited by Ian Hamilton on

Comments

  • Tom-CatTom-Cat
    edited March 2004
    Brilliant ???

    It is like playing poor man's DonkeyKong Country or something. Sacrilidge... they turned one of the best games ever into a mockery :((( Played it for 15 minutes and just couldn't stand it anymore... thank god I didn't pay money for it. Stay away !!!
  • AndyHerbertAndyHerbert
    edited March 2004
    Ever played "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" on the XBox?

    That features loads of in-jokes, including a picture of the Mire Mare box-art on a pin-board "To-do" list in the kitchen :)
  • monty.molemonty.mole
    edited March 2004
    Here is an extract of the beginning of the review for Sabre Wulf from Cube magazine:

    Based on the ancient Commodore 64 title, this lovely little game has you....

    I'd understand if this was a US magazine, but it is a UK magazine! Needless to say, I will be banning that magazine from my house, and I'll burn the copy I have. :mad: *shakes with fury*
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited March 2004
    LOL!!!!!
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • judasEZTjudasEZT
    edited March 2004
    haha.. youre right Monty, being the reviewer from UK has no pardon..
  • cyborgcyborg
    edited March 2004
    I still don't get what's so great about the original game - I never liked it. Dull and pointless.
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited March 2004
    sabre wulf .....a great little early arcade adventure with elements of rpg thrown in?
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • DunnyDunny
    edited March 2004
    It was so damned big.

    And immersive. Atmosphere? It had (and indeed still has) it in bag-loads.

    I actually got the feeling of having tumbled into a jungle from a great height (Indiana Jones-esque jungle mudslide) and now have to find my way through...

    The animals "exploding" from the undergrowth, running like hell from a charging rhino... Seeing the topmost mountains for the first time.

    Mastering the keys, and having them as my permanent "define keys" option for years afterwards.

    And of course, the game being so damned long that I only ended up completing it a year or two ago. It's one I have always gone back to, and was the first to get played through my miggy's sound sampler into ZXAM and saved as a snapshot.

    Knightlore on the other hand... pile of cack.

    The new GBA version is ok - but it's not what I would have looked for in a modern sequel. Oh dear me no.

    D.
  • Technician-TedTechnician-Ted
    edited March 2004
    I'll have to check it out..I think i read somewhere that the original spectrum programmer was brought out of retirement to do the sequel on the gba..Should be worth a look!
  • FilFil
    edited March 2004
    On 2004-03-15 12:46, Technician-Ted wrote:
    I'll have to check it out..I think i read somewhere that the original spectrum programmer was brought out of retirement to do the sequel on the gba..Should be worth a look!

    I've completed all the stages in the GBA version (but have yet to collect all five orchids for the 'special ending'). Tim and Chris Stamper are in the credits under "RARE thanks to" (something like that), but they didn't program the game.

    The game itself isn't too bad, but the graphical style (Donkey Kong Country style CGI) isn't that great IMO. I'd had preferred hand-drawn graphics. The game is fairly simplistic, so it's 8-bit in that sense! ;) )

    Phil
  • BlunderbussBlunderbuss
    edited March 2004
    To really appreciate Sabre Wulf you had to be a Spectrum owner when it first came out. Mysterious adverts that gave away absolutely nothing about the gameplay started appearing in magazines long before it went on sale (ditto Lords of Midnight). I unexpectedly stumbled upon it in Boots, and bought it on the spot, even though it cost a tenner (previous Ultimate games cost ?5.50). I soon had my Vic-20/Intellivision owning mates round the Speccy, and they loved this game. Those bright graphics looked great at the time, and it does play fast.

    Those were the days etc.!!!
  • Bluce_ReeBluce_Ree
    edited March 2004
    I got my speccy in 1984 i think. Sabre Wulf was part of the 'They Sold A Million' pack and I that was amongst the first games i got.

    JSW, Beach Head and Daley's Decathlon were all great fun but Sabre Wulf seemed like no fun at all. I loaded it again yesterday and I still hate it. I'd much rather they remade Ant Attack for the GBA. That'd be dark skills.
  • jiljil
    edited March 2004
    They Sold A Million came out in late-'85. I got it for xmas that year, along with Way Of The Exploding Fist - memorable cos it was my first Speccy Xmas (I'd bought my Speccy + about summer '85)!
    I really wanted it for JSW and Decathelon, but in the event I probably played Beach Head and Sabre Wulf more!
    Sabre Wulf was stunning - I'll never forget seeing the mountains and the wulf for the first time, a truly magic moment! :) One of the few tough games I completed without cheating too, and it certainly felt like quite an achievement too. A true classic :cool:
    I remember always being frustrated that the JSW infi-lives pokes wouldn't work (cos Ocean had changed the loader to Speedlock) - basts! :cry:
    I worked out fairly soon that, unlike Sabre Wulf, there was NO WAY I would be able to complete JSW without cheating. There was still a lot of appeal in the game trying to find every room, but once the novelty wore off I didn't play it quite so much.
    TSAM was a great compilation at the time, one I just HAD to have! The two follow-ups were weaker though.

    [ This Message was edited by: jil on 2004-03-16 02:53 ]
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited March 2004
    Woohooo im just downloading it off [censored]
    but sssshhhh :p
    well, come on, im not buying a gameboy advance just for that, im mad im not "that" mad lol

    _________________
    On 2003-12-08 20:15, cyborg wrote:
    You're all corporate bitches if you buy a console - face it. Unless it's a Phantom - in that case you're just stupid - because even if it did exist it'd be crap

    [ This Message was edited by: mheide on 2004-03-19 20:35 ]
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • judasEZTjudasEZT
    edited March 2004
    yes, GBA is a great deception to me.
    almost all games are crap licences, games made withouit inspiration, surely because creators will be forced to work with hurry.

    the other games are nintendo ones, which are good.. but very vulgar,.. their characters sucks!! but nintendo can produce everything they want, will be authomatic a classic.. bah!
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited March 2004
    Ive had a quick play and so far looks good, different from the classic sabre wulf of yore as i thought, graphics and sound are cool....may be a bit easy like most gba games, made more with the kiddies in mind...

    surely in the spaccy days it was mostly kids buying the games, i myself was 13 when i got mine, so why oh why did ultimate make games as hard as lunar jetman and underworld lol
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • monty.molemonty.mole
    edited March 2004
    On 2004-03-18 22:46, mel the bell wrote:
    so why oh why did ultimate make games as hard as lunar jetman and underworld lol

    Well, they can afford to make modern games easier as the game can be so much bigger nowadays, and it will still take twenty four hours to complete. People wouldn't have been too impressed if they could complete Lunar Jetman in 10 minutes flat! (Me? - I can't get off the first level!) :)
  • mel the bellmel the bell
    edited March 2004
    hmmmm well ive just been trying and......

    i can still even after 20 years only just get the bomb through the damn teleporter :( and ive only ever got the gun onto the buggy about twice......never mind shooting that damn missile 8 times?? 8 times?? id be lucky to hit it once
    Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
  • monty.molemonty.mole
    edited March 2004
    Well, that's a damn sight further than I've got. I can't even get the buggy past the first crater with the bomb on board. There are just too many aliens homing in on you to be able to concentrate on anything else. Mind you, I've only recently started playing this game. I just gave up after half an hour; everything around me was just getting too damaged as I punched things through sheer fustration. :mad: :lol:
  • BlunderbussBlunderbuss
    edited March 2004
    I did get to try out the BBC version version of Sabre Wulf back then. It was more colourful, but it also looked a bit garish. It didn't play as well either. I also got the impression that BBC owners expected something more sophisticated in a top-rated game after playing 'Elite'.
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