Dastardly & Muttley

Crash Him... Smash Him... Bash Him... Get that pigeon now!

Children’s TV became a whole lot dimmer when Dastardly and Muttley and the Wacky Races went off the air. Now I’m sure some of you out there will probably know where to find the show on the countless cable and satellite channels available, but for those, like me, who need their fix of ‘Drat and Double Drat!!’ good news is at hand in the form of Dastardly and Muttley in their flying machines.

As if you need much reminding of the classic antics of this bizarre duo, but it’s your mission to use some of the familiar planes and characters from the animated show, to catch that do-gooder pigeon. I for one was always on the side of Dastardly and Muttley whenever I watched them try their hardest to win – yet always letting the bird and the prize slip through their fingers. So given this opportunity to settle this childhood score once and for all, I found myself captivated from the start in this top-down shooter.

For all of those arcade plane shoot-‘em-up fans, this game turns out to be more than a surprising and enjoyable effort from the games creators. Whether you like the animated series or not, it almost becomes irrelevant as there’s quite a mission on your hands to fly through wave after wave of enemy fighters, tougher planes, cannons, lasers and of course the carrier pigeon who seems to keep leading you into the path of particularly tough end of level bosses.

To start with you have the option of flying Dick Dastardly’s plane or Klunk’s biplane.  As you progress you will get to unlock Zilly’s nimble aeroplane and Muttley’s fiercely equipped fighter-plane. Each of these planes have their own individual attributes, one is faster yet lacks firepower, others are more evenly balanced and others are for those who are after no prisoners - so whatever your gaming style, there’s bound to be a particular plane to suit.

Controls in this game are as simple as they get, your plane automatically fires, so this leaves you to concentrate on evading the enemy weapons and aircraft as they come at you from all angles. Along the way you will find an array of comic power-ups, from a number 8 ball which spins around you giving you a bit of additional protection and offensive capabilities when charging into opponents, to a boxing glove which you can trigger to bash oncoming opposition with by pressing the action key.

The levels themselves are pretty intricate and on more than one occasion in most levels, you’re given different routes to take, although in truth it seems to lead you to the same destination and end of level boss, but at least it gives you some variety.

You are scored by the number of enemy you bring down, barge into and lose points for letting them get away. From my experience, your canons have little effect and barging your opponents can become the best way of getting a good score – but at the cost of radically reducing your chances of surviving the level (due to it damaging your aircraft).

Overall, this scrolling top-down aircraft blasting frenzy does exactly as it should, give you a good laugh and a challenge. With quite a few levels to complete and the reward of unlocking other aircraft to compete with, this game provides more repeat plays than most others in the same genre.

Rating 84%

Positives

Good action and fun-packed shoot-‘em-up

Strong graphics

Appeals to my anti-pigeon nature

Negatives

Although the attributes of the planes change, the reality of some of these strengths isn’t clear

A tad repetitive

Sometimes there’s no way you can get to destroy all the enemy on the screen