Dodgy puzzles and bad writing

[Max]

Hi all, haven't been here for a while!

As a child I loved Crystal Kingdom Dizzy on the C64, but replaying it now I've realised how rushed it feels. Clearly the graphics are a lot better than the previous games and the music is stunning, but the puzzles and writing weren't up to scratch. The writing lacks the character of the previous games and the grammar is very poor in some places. It feels like the different characters don't have their own personalities in this one and all merge in to one.

Examples:

Dizzy: Do you have any peanuts on you.
CJ: No, sorry.

Dizzy: Hello.
Dozy: Yawn.

The previous games writing felt like a well written story book and didn't have such uninventive introductions.

I've also noticed a lot of the puzzles don't make sense. Take the pirate ship level... you speak to Dozy and the 'conversation' above takes place. Then you do a few more random puzzles and if you go back to him Dizzy says "what are you sleeping on?" then Dozy gives him the pirate ship flag. I also don't understand why Dizzy would cut a hole in the pirate ship sales, then repair it with a patch. Surely it would make more sense for the hole to be there already and them to have made a little storyline around it? I know the previous games puzzles could be a bit odd, but there was always a logic that isn't there in this game. All the stuff about Grand Dizzy not talking to Dizzy in Part 1 is nonsense too.

I still like it a lot though and find it strangely relaxing to play.

[JonnyJP]

Crystal Kingdom Dizzy was a bit of a disappointment on the Speccy, the style of the graphics was different, there were levels and you're right, there wasn't really a great story at all (plus it was a full price game!!).

The thing that annoys me about Dizzy games (since Spellbound) is that Dizzy gets hurt when falling a long distance. I remember reading somewhere in the story that Dizzy was hard boiled, so falling distances wouldn't hurt him!

[STEVE 09]

Yes I remember when the early previews first came out in Crash magazine for Crystal Kingdom Dizzy and everyone was really excited about it after the previous Dizzy games such as Spellbound Dizzy and Magic Land Dizzy. But it turned out to be the worst Dizzy game of the whole series by a large mile.

This new Dizzy game was just so different from the previous Dizzy games in almost every way. The sprites, the level design, everything was so different. It almost doesn't even feel like a Dizzy game at times.

Such a shame because I felt Dizzy still had another 1 or 2 big games on the Spectrum, but due to the failure of Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, I think this was why the series came to an abrupt, unfortunate end.

[Meph]

It would have been naff if they were all identical.

[Nowhere Girl]

replaying it now I've realised how rushed it feels. Clearly the graphics are a lot better than the previous games and the music is stunning, but the puzzles and writing weren't up to scratch. The writing lacks the character of the previous games and the grammar is very poor in some places. It feels like the different characters don't have their own personalities in this one and all merge in to one.

I agree. It's really a pity, because fof example graphically this is really a high degree of development. Well, generally I prefer FAoD, but the hut interiors are much better in Crystal Dizzy. In FAoD all the rooms look the same, just with different furniture arragements, if you're talking about personality - in this case it's the rooms which definitely don't have one. In Crystal Dizzy the rooms look amazing, the only drawback are the relative sizes - how can Dora work in her kitchen, when the oven is more or less her height? Sure, the Yolkfolk are quite short, which makes it hard to draw nice furniture in "their size", but I wonder why nobody noticed this problem.
On the other hand - in very few official Dizzy games you could enter the huts, so there isn't much to compare...
Btw, the huts in Prince of the Yolkfolk (where you can't enter the huts and it's not clear if they belong to the family) are the best of all Dizzy games. Just very much hut-like.

[Bag of Magic Food]

I tried out a few of the ports of this game, and I noticed they updated the writing a little with each version. So in the Amstrad version Daisy has a different line that explains more, in the Commodore 64 version a few more lines are changed, and by the time you get to the Amiga version, all the dialogue is completely different, more informative and full of character. It's a lot like how Dizzy the Adventurer updated most of Prince of the Yolkfolk's story to make a bit more sense.

I can see where they were coming from with the 4 levels idea. It could be a response to how Spellbound Dizzy and Fantastic Dizzy were requiring the player to do way too much in one sitting. Breaking it up into 4 mini-adventures means you don't have so many objects to try using in so many places, though in Crystal Kingdom it ended up making it a little too easy at some points, but at least that makes it a good beginner's game.

I've also noticed a lot of the puzzles don't make sense. Take the pirate ship level... you speak to Dozy and the 'conversation' above takes place. Then you do a few more random puzzles and if you go back to him Dizzy says "what are you sleeping on?" then Dozy gives him the pirate ship flag.

This is one of those things they changed for the 16-bit updates. There you find Dozy lying on a hammock and have to cut it down with the scissors to get his attention.

I also don't understand why Dizzy would cut a hole in the pirate ship sales, then repair it with a patch. Surely it would make more sense for the hole to be there already and them to have made a little storyline around it?

I don't think Dizzy cut the hole in the sail; I believe the hole was already there, and Dizzy cut some ropes to LOWER the sail so you could see the hole.

[AnthonyJDB]

I remember being rather disappointed with the C64 version. Although it certainly ran at a very smooth pace, the graphics were by no means on a par with other C64 games of its time (Compare "Creatures 2", "Bod Squad" ... come to think of it, "Bubble Dizzy" was also a 1992 release, and offered a much nicer, cartoony lo-res multicolor interpretation of Dizzy). There are some very messy looking textures, and the tile set seems very reduced from the detail and variety of the earlier games. The pirate ship even seems to be missing a huge square chunk out of its hull, as if someone was unwilling or unable to draw the requisite piece.

Fast and colourful, certainly, but I'd have happily traded those qualities in for the subtlety and variety of graphics even in the very first Dizzy game (where eerily twisted gothic trees compare very favourably with the vomit-shaded lego-block trees of "Crystal Kingdom...").

And the writing certainly wasn't on a par with previous games, lacking context, humour, and imagination. And why, having spent the early '90s repeatedly trying to drown Dizzy in deep ocean trenches, was Captain Blackheart suddenly a nice guy?

TBF, I thought the puzzles improved as the game progressed. ***Spoilers ahoy*** I enjoyed repairing the ship, rupturing the fuel line, bursting the dinghy, using the parachute etc. Fetching Grand Dizzy his various comforts just to loosen his tongue was comparatively dull, but I suppose they wanted to start the game on an easy note. I disliked the lack of logic with the flippers and aqualung, though (neither making any difference to your actual swimming ability, but needing both in order not to drown). This seemed a bizarre downgrade of the extremely similar puzzle in "Spellbound Dizzy", and reeked of sloppy programming.

[SnTrooper]

I disliked the lack of logic with the flippers and aqualung, though (neither making any difference to your actual swimming ability, but needing both in order not to drown). This seemed a bizarre downgrade of the extremely similar puzzle in "Spellbound Dizzy", and reeked of sloppy programming.

Complete guess but I think they did it like that on purpose because if you went down without the flippers there would be no way of getting back out.

[AnthonyJDB]

Complete guess but I think they did it like that on purpose because if you went down without the flippers there would be no way of getting back out.

I never thought of that, but it does seem very likely. It suppose it is a less obscene workaround than the method used in "Treasure Island Dizzy" to prevent the player from dropping snorkel underwater (i.e. Instant death).