Gryphon (1984)

Name:Gryphon
Number:202
Year:1984
Publisher:Quicksilva
Developer:Antony Crowther
Genre:Side-Scroller
Difficulty:4/5
Time:1 hour 30 minutes
Won:Not possible

I feel like I've played a game by Antony Crowther before, but what, I don't see. (I've heard of some, especially the infamous Potty Pigeon) I would certainly remember that name, it's the same as the original author of the legendary Adventure. The title screen gave me a little confidence, until I looked closer and realized this, despite it's detail, is badly drawn. A Gryphon isn't a real creature, but the elements that make up the Gryphon are from real creatures. This is some wonky anatomy. The horizon is also somewhat funky. I'm getting a bad feeling about this.

After a long period of loading, the game starts up. The music that plays when the game starts is...carnival music. I hope those of you who like the C64 will understand when I say that this whole subject has given me a bad feeling in my stomach. The screen scrolls as I'm on this menu. It looks nice, backgorund and foreground elements. This makes me worry about the game itself.

These worries are not quite true in the way I was expecting. The game itself is semi-nice to control. Left and right move at a decent pace, though you get a "middle" of the turn turn where you can't shoot. Shooting is fairly nice too, no worries about the number of shots you have on-screen, fairly fast. Flying is awkward but workable. You have to press up and a direction, or down and a direction once you start moving. It's more annoying that whenever you stop you make the middle of the turn and start going down. Another quirk is that your character moves faster in the air than on the ground.

This would be fine were it not for one issue. Collision boxes. You and the enemy sprites are quite small and you get plenty of time to react most of the time. I wouldn't complain too much about being a one hit kill, except that collision is based on a box around the sprite, which makes everything much larger than they should be.

Otherwise it's a fairly typical endless hordes of enemies. Three appear at a time usually, only if you turn around can more appear, usually limited to four. Their behavior is random, as is their spawns, so you can get bad luck with continually spawning enemies in front of you or enemies spawning below you. Get 10000 points, or kill 100 and you get another live. Very useful for obvious reasons.

 

It took me a while to figure out what to actually do on this level, since despite sometimes making it past the hordes of Caster the Friendly Ghost and his ten thousand clones, I kept dying at the level exit. Then I spotted that there was water there. Water was there earlier, but you fly over it. Because you can fly. If you hit the ceiling you crash down. But in a tunnel? Argh. Eventually, I figured out that you have to go back, picking something up with your mouth, then dropping it in the water. I later found out this was a gold horde the Gryphon is protecting. Huh.

 

Going back causes the endlessly respawning hordes to change into beach balls. How the hell did I end up playing a game with beach balls twice in a row? They explode, but because they're smaller than the ghosts, this is more generous. The real problem is that because of the way it's laid out, you have to avoid certain sections which may hide enemies.

It's at this point that I discover something annoying with the tunnel. See, I've died there a lot, but I was assuming that an enemy popped it's head up from below...but it hasn't. I've been dropping the gold bar wrong. That kills me. If you don't drop it accurately in the water at a point just past where you would think, in danger of dying by stepping a bit too far, that's where you drop the gold bar. He starts dropping it when you reach the water, a very annoying and deadly combination.

Doing it two more times turns the enemies into flying skulls and then insects. Not sure if the skulls do anything new, but the insects seem to have different behavior than the rest of the enemies. Sometimes they seem to match my height, others they stay at the same height for longer than the others. But, looking at video footage I've taken, the difference seems to be minute for the most part.

When I eventually reach the the second to last one, they change into bats. Hang on, is the author of this game under the impression that making the enemies smaller is making the game harder? As the game goes on, my only problem is exclusively the bit at the end. I only occasionally get unlucky with regular enemies. It's trying to fit that darn stone in correctly. Either I go too far or I don't go far enough. Late stones are easier to put it, but those first two are so tricky.

I took a video of some of this. You'll note how often I sort of rubber band back and forth, taking out enemies to grind for lives. That difficulty in placing stones is actually double-sided, by not taking trips back you lose out on score, and thus more lives. I also reached the final creature, flies. These guys actually took me out, but I'm not sure if that's bad luck or not. That happens a lot, sometimes good, usually bad.

Weapons:
A fine but simple weapon. 1/10

Enemies:
Despite being six or so variations, the differences are solely in size. Despite some thoughts that way they really don't change at all between them. 1/10

Non-Enemies:
None.

Levels:
Despite the annoyance of the water trap and the foreground objects, they add a bit of depth to what would otherwise be a simple back and forth trip. 1/10

Player Agency:
A bit wonky by intention, but it works fine once you get used to it. The bigger problem is the player's generous sprite size and dying in one hit. 4/10

Interactivity:
I guess moving rocks back and forth is interactivity. 1/10

Atmosphere:
Vaguely fun and weird fantasy-ish. 1/10

Graphics:
Very nicely animated and drawn in-game, everything is just nice. The title card is goofy, but I wouldn't say it drags it down at all. 4/10

Story:
If I didn't read that the title character was protecting a gold horde, I would never realize it. 0/10

Sound/Music:
Very Atari 2600. Not bad, outside of the carnival music menu track, moody background noise and the expected sounds, but I tire of these blips and bloops. 1/10

That's 14.

While I found this game mildly amusing, I can't help but notice that everything it right compared to other titles it screws up by making those aspects janky. The nice graphics are...nice, but the forescreen bits, by intention, obscure enemies, not great in a game where you die in one hit.