"One of the 'funnest' Apple II platform action/puzzlers ever!"

Conan - This Apple II series action-adventure game is a real classic. It was extremely popular in its day, prompting lots of schoolyard discussion as to how to overcome the puzzles through its seven levels. My sister and I still like to fire it up on the Apple IIGS today. Datasoft released many games of this specific genre for the Apple II and C64, combining platform action and puzzling. Games such as The Goonies, Bruce Lee, and Zorro.

Conan presents you with puzzles and challenges entirely specific to each level. Graphics are small-scale so as to cram a lot into the Apple II screen. The fact that Conan somersaults was really cool in its day... We had rarely seen that before. Games such as Impossible Mission with even more detailed somersaults truly wowed us! On the most hectic levels of Conan, the action can slow down as the Apple II burns rubber trying to simultaneously animate Conan, his swords, volcanic platforms, a waterfall and perhaps ten or more fungal creatures.

Conan controls nicely with the joystick. He has just the tiniest hint of inertia about him, moving between walking and running. His swords are like boomerangs - you lob them out and unless they smack directly into an obstacle or an enemy, they will come back. With some grace you can 'nick' your enemies with the edge of your sword, which still destroys them, but allows you to recollect your sword on its return journey! You can have lots of fun with your swords; sending them out, leaping over them, running away from them. You have to play pretty gratuitously to use them all up before you first get the chance to replace them on level four.

The first level is a nice easy warm-up in a ruined castle. The lone threat is a bat flapping around in the castle. This creature can be dispatched with your sword, though it's best to get the secret extra life first, by not harming the bat, and jumping into a tree from the castle battlements. It's these secret and extra touches that make Conan particularly good. It had a bit more scope for tricks and forethought (saving objects you collect on one level to make later levels easier) than was common at the time.

The second level presents a forest with a number of platforms and ladders spread through the treetops. It's here you learn that somersaulting to land safely is a little more subtle as an art than you expected. Over or underjumping at times will bump you on a tree bough then drop you into a pit filled with daggers or swords. There are some nice little bugs you can exploit to be able to walk in parts of the level you're not meant to, however they all have a fatal end result.

Things start to get properly difficult on level three. Patience is your biggest virtue here. Teleporters wink in and out of existence, infuriatingly in league with some killer ants who scuttle in and out as well. Your goal is through the teleporter, but how to get there without running into the ants? (who are conveniently too low for you to chop to death with your swords). The gem you collect is placed onto an altar which causes a bubble to rise from a volcanic pit. Here you demonstrate your stuntman abilities as you seek to get into the bubble as soon as possible, and out of it as late as possible, to maximise your score.

Level four is especially fun chaos. Fungal beasts materialise about a system of platforms and ladders suspended over lava and water. Lots of astute leaping about is required to dodge your enemies, navigate the terrain and grab the bonus swords and the gems you need to progress. If you leave it for too long, this level can get incredibly severe as an unbelievable number of fungal beasts crowd the screen at once.

In the remaining three levels, you face many bizarre and inventive threats and puzzles. Gems that turn into dragons. Vindictive little 'flames' that crawl between lava pits, trying to incinerate you en route. Devices that create lightning and forcefields. A huge electric generator that must be destroyed by the rather classy method of dropping a chandelier on it (I never could work that one out by myself!). Floating eyeballs which, when slain, turn into parts of a ladder required to progress. Gems that are turned into spinning ninja stars (my best description) by the villainous Volta, Conan's nemesis in this game. And oversized mosquitos. One cool/frustrating thing is that you can fall back down a pit from level seven to level six!

When you die, there are witty or 'sage' little messages related to your death or the level you were on, which is a great touch.

Conan is really fun, with a strongly addictive quality and good puzzles spread over an imaginative variety of levels and enemies. It also possesses many fine little details, such as hidden means of collecting extra lives, and inter-level tricks, that were quite original touches in games at the time (1984). I and many others would consider Conan to be one of the 10 best games ever released for the Apple II. For the amount of time I spent thinking about, being addicted to and being in awe of this game, I absolutely must give it

..10 out of 10.. Check it out!!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/01, Updated 02/22/01