EGGIT GOLD (3)
By Rikus Kras & Amazing Productions
GAME TYPE: 
PUZZLE/PLATFORM
PLAYERS: ONE/TWO
DIFFICULTY: HARD
TARGET: YET AGAIN, GET THE EGG
THROUGH VARIOUS THEMED LEVELS
WHILE COLLECTING COINS!
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
MIMIMUM: 486 DX2 WITH
8 MEGS RAM
RECOMMENDED AT LEAST
P90 WITH 8/16 MEGS RAM
SOUND CARD OPTIONAL
"The Egg You Would Never Eat" is back. Again. Yes, Amazing Productions have stuck with
their 'If a game is popular let's release multiple sequels' policy to bring you the third Eggit incarnation. However, unlike Eggit Gold's prequels where our little egg's purpose in life was merely to travel through all the levels unscathed, this time we are treated to a laughably ridiculous storyline betelling the fate of Eggit World. Apparently, a certain Golden Egg is the world's biggest defence, stopping all things evil from entering the planet. However, this very important free range chap seems to be somewhat absent minded, and has forgotten to wear his Factor 20 sunblock again! Defying all logic, the egg melts (whoo, must have been a really hot day!), leaving Eggit World defenceless. This allows the eggs' greatest enemies, The Crackers (!!) access to the planet, where, unless a new Golden Egg is constructed, the aforementioned crunchy-crisp wheat snackettes will make short work of everyone's favorite unfertilised chicken ova!! Shock horror! Surely nothing can stop these satanic crackers? But wait! Here comes our egg hero, complete with his bouncy springboard thing, ready to go into action once more! Hooray!!
Okay, that's the story out the way. Let's try and put that aside and move onto the actual
game. Basically, Eggit Gold is more of the same, with your egg hopping from platform to platform while collecting coins and dodging Twirly Nasties. There are some new features included, such as a shield which temporarily protects you from harm, and an item that switches everything the wrong way round, so all items on the left are now on the right and vice versa. However, rather than helping progress,, this is merely distractng and aggravating, and can cause you to lose a life if you accidently touch the icon, as before you know what's happening, a Twirly Nasty from the other side of the screen could suddenly appear infront of you, creating a yolky mess on the floor.
Again, like it's predecessors, the game is divided into numerous Worlds. For the main, there
does actually seem to be a learning curve through each different section, with the first world gently coaxing you in, leading up to the fourth world where the platforms crumble under your feet and if you mistime one jump then you have to restart the whole level, and to get through this world calls for great accuracy. There are some levels that are harder than later levels, but for the main, this is one of Amazing Productions' best learning curves in a game.Still, some levels are ridiculously difficult, which can become frustrating. Also, the levels are very repetetive and soon become extremely boring to play. Thankfully, a save option has been included so it is possible to take a break from the game for a few days without losing your position. This was a good move on Rikus' part, as even getting up to the point you're currently at may have been frustrating, leaving you with little desire to have to go through all the levels once again!
The graphics for Eggit Gold are mediocre at best. The actual level graphics are fairly dull, and
the backgrounds are especially uninteresting. For example, on level one, having to look at that stripey-green background for five levels on the trot was not particularly pleasing to the eye, and though I rarely complain about graphics, this setup really makes the game feel a lot more dull to play than it would with slightly more variation in level design.
In Eggit Gold there are also a new version of the Twirly Nasties, but these ones aren't really
as well drawn as their predecessors, and look so drastically different that you may not actually realise what they are before examing them and losing a life in the process! However, once you get used to them the game is easier to play, although it still feels odd when leaping over the nasties.
There is a collection of nice rendered screens by Tommi, but these have been ruined slightly
by Rikus adjusting them from a high resolution to 256 colour mode, so they look quite sketchy and flakey, and generally not as good to look at as perhaps they should have been.
Eggit Gold's music is generally quite aggravating and distracting, and World One's music
drove me up the wall so much that I was actually forced to turn the speakers off! The tunes have been mainly selected from other media sources, and although they aren't too bad in themselves, they seem to have been selected badly, and don't really suit their levels. This is also true of the other Eggit games, including Eggit 2. Also, Rikus seems to insist on using huge WAVE file tunes for the title screens of all his most recent games, because he doesn't have a partiularly good sound card and these WAVE versions are so much better. However, anybody with a halfway decent wavetable will hear the tune in MIDI format in exactly the same, if not better, quality than the WAVE itself!
Other than the one-player mode, Eggit Gold contains many other modes, including old
favourites such as the Two Player Mode. This mode has remained basically the same as in Eggit 2's mode, although there is a new feature where if one player is doing very well, other coins can appear in your opponents' half of the screen, and usually in very hard to reach places! The two player mode can be quite fun, but I still feel that having Player Two on the left of the screen and Player One on the right feels slightly odd, although this does not directly affect gameplay.
Also making its second appearance is the Level Editor, which is now slightly more advanced,
allowing you to place down a variety of platforms and choose your own background music. Also, for this advanced version, you start off with several lives as opposed to just the one. However, despite his best efforts, Rikus could not impliment a save feature, although this is not terribly difficult to achieve. Generally, this mode is fairly good fun, but is still pretty buggy.
As well as these modes, Eggit Gold also includes the "Hardcore Levels" Mode, which are
supposed to be very difficult Eggit levels, although I personally found them to be easier than the regular levels. However, a nice feature is that your multi-talented egg can now fly!! This provides novelty value at first, but the "wow" factor will pass you within about three seconds (in my case, three point two seconds). This mode cannot be accessed without first completing the normal levels to obtain the password, though the code is blatantly obvious.
By far the weirdest mode, however, is the Special Mode. Here, several eggs travel in a
set path towards a specific amount of coins at the end of the course. Several doors block their way, and you must open and shut them accordingly, allowing them access to these coins. However, open a door too late and the egg will bounce back, most probably falling to its "death", or walking into a Twirly Nasty. This is a lot harder than it sounds, and is fairly strategic. In some respects, it is like the old classic Lemmings, but generally this is just frustrating and annoying.
At the end of the day, I didn't really enjoy Eggit Gold, due to its repetetive levels and dull
gameplay. Generally, the one player mode hasn't progressed since the original Eggit, basically feeding the player with more of the same. The majority of players are more than happy with this, but after three games I think that the once original Eggit format has had its day, and although the credits reveal that this is possibly the last Eggit game, if there is to be a sequel (which there no doubt will be) some engine tweaks and new gameplay features really need to be included to stop the format from becoming repetetive.

GRAPHICS

82%

 Mostly all original art.

Repetetive, dull graphics, and renderings are slightly messy.

MUSIC

76%

 Tunes very unsuiting to their respective levels, and quite distracting.

SFX

78%

 Good range of sounds.

The constant bouncing sound becomes frustrating.

GAMEPLAY

78%

 The egg handles pretty well.

However, its constant bouncing can make jumping unpredictable.

LASTABILITY

70%

 Lots of different modes included.

Most of them are frustrating or become slightly boring. Levels are very repetetive.

OVERALL

77%

 Eggit Gold is fun to play at first, but even with all its modes, becomes frustrating to play and leaves little to come back to once completed.
Eggit Gold can be downloaded at Rikus Kras' Eggit Gold Page
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