Platform – adventure game Qwak on the Commodore was coded by Oziphantom and released in 2017. This is a port of you guessed it – Qwak, originally released in 1989 by coder Jamie Woodhouse on the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, as part of Superior / Acornsoft’s, “Play It Again Sam” 10 game pack compilation.

In 1993, Team17 released an updated budget version with a two player mode, it received a ‘Gamer Gold’ accolade with a whopping 92% overall score by Amiga Computing Magazine.  Then in 2006, Jamie Woodhouse brought Qwak back from the dead with a Game Boy Advance version. In 2010 Jamie Woodhouse released an i-phone version.

This review appeared in 8-Bit Annual book 2018. It’s been a very long time for a version of Qwak to appear on the C64 / C128.  So what’s the story behind the Commodore version of the game? Coder, Oziphantom (he must be from Australia with a name like that) informs me that his version of Qwak, originally came about as part of the 2015, RGCD compo, which actually concluded on April 1st, 2016.  However, the latest version 1.3 was released on 15th October, 2017.

“It’s more of an update on previous system versions, it’s half way between the BBC micro version and the Amiga Version”.  The idea of converting Qwak to the C64, was actually Saul Cross’s idea, as I had never played the original until I did the port”, says Oziphantom.

What do i think about this simplistic 2d platformer game ? Honestly –  I am totally addicted. A duck has got to eat loads of apples and flowers, collect a whole lot of keys, a potion or two, avoid the bad enemy by removing them with what looks like a bubble for a weapon (Wikipedia says meant to be an egg like projectile – i know a bubble when i see one) and then open the exit door to reach the next, much more challenging, higher level.

This version gives you 5 Lives to begin with, if you collect 8 flowers on a level you get an extra life – trust me you will need them. On level three you will come across floating bubbles you can use as lifts, this was just way too cool.  Later a ‘Spring’ will let you hover, kind of like Yoshi from Yoshi’s Island. A ‘Red Egg’ makes your bullets stronger, so much so that it can hurt level bosses. A ‘Shield’ makes you invulnerable for a period of time and the ‘Potion’ transforms the spikes into fruit. To kill bosses you can either hit them with red egg bullets or bounce on their heads while the shield is active.

Control of movement i found a little tricky at times, perhaps that’s because of the Xbox 360 gamepad i am using? At times it seemed to me all of the sprite characters moved about a tad too fast, i was wondering where my duck character was on the screen, perhaps i am getting too old, maybe i need glasses?      

This version of Qwak consists of 31 purely addictive, challenging levels, i believe other systems versions may have more or they might have less.  The music is terrific, your duck won’t die of a lack of atmosphere that’s a certainty. Gameplay is a real challenge, even though you can kill your enemy with a bubble, the enemy re-spawn moving even faster than they did before, you thought this game was going to be easy didn’t you ? Well guess again!

There is no end of game sequence, it just loops, Oziphantom says “what do you want for 16kb ?” (we want an end of game sequence in the next version – only joking!) While at times frustrating, there is a reason for only being allowed to blow a single bubble at a time to kill the enemies.  “It would make it too easy if you could just shoot your way through, it’s more of an avoidance game. The original BBC version gives you a score bonus if you don’t shoot anything when completing a level, but that didn’t make it into this 16K version”, says Oziphantom. Overall, a fantastic, simplistic game, addictive from the beginning you start playing.

Totally addictive from level 1, get those keys, collect some flowers and get to the exit door at the bottom…..easy bahahah !

Level 2 looks tough, time your falls and it will be a cinch to get all those keys.

Made it to 3rd level and i am floating on bubbles, but so can your enemy how cool is this!

PROS

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• Excellent tunes.
• Addictive.
• 31 levels.
• Cool boss characters.
• Hard to put down.

CONS

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• Controls a little tricky at times
• Movement of sprites too fast ?

OVERALL 90%

CPC4EVA