Robin Hood

"The great adventure of the 2-bit stick figure!"

Introduction: Robin hood ranks in My list as one of the worse games ever made. It is a very old game, for a very old system, but that isn't what makes it bad. If you want to know what makes it bad, continue this review. . . If you dare..

Graphics: Colecovision game's strength was never there graphics. This is no exception. Your character, ''Robin hood'', is a stick figure. All the enemies' are stick figure's. How do we tell the hero from the villain? Robin Hood has a brown upper half. Enemies' have green upper halfs. ((I thought this story was supposed to take place on Earth...)) The over world doesn't look very good, either. A funny little ''Glitch'' the graphics have is when an enemy walks behind a tree. instead of going behind it, they keep walking in front. Like the back ground was made, and then the character's we're pasted on in front of it all. Horrible graphics.

Play Control: Very simple. The joy stick moves Robin Hood, and the button makes him use the weapon he has at the moment. It really doesn't get more simple then that.

Music: Make it stop.... Kick the speakers........ Kill the sound chip..... Just make it stop.. If you thought Hylide was bad for music that repeats, then try Robin Hood out. The same song literally plays for ever. The song loops every 2.3 seconds, as well. If you we're wondering, the song is a med-evil type thing that gets very annoying after the first four hundred hours of it. And if you we're not wondering, I went ahead and told you any way.

Sound effects: Hmm.. Let Me think.. Was there any? Maybe My mind blocked them all out to save Me from going insane, but I don't remember any. Maybe there was a ''Beep'' when you hit someone with an arrow. The music drowned everything out, anyway.

Story: I have no idea... Robin Hood must go to the castle, and rob the rich king or save a princess, or something like that. The game gives no text or scenes that even show there is a story.

Gameplay: I'll explain all I know about Robin Hood. This is an over head game. You start out on Area-1. In this area, you see the other stick figu-- Er, people, walking around. There all shooting arrows at each other, and you. You use the button to use your bow and arrow and shoot them. Yep, that's it. Shoot them all, then move Robin Hood to the end of the screen, and you appear in Area-2. Here, your bow and arrows are replaced with a big club. The enemies' also now have clubs. Now they walk right to left, like zombies, and you have to go behind them, and tap the button a thousand times to club them in the back of the head. Of course, most of the time when you do this, they just turn around and club you in the face, killing you, before you can do anything. Kill them all, then move Robin Hood to the end of this screen, going to Area-3. You have your bow and arrows again here, and the castle is in site. An enemy will appear here and there, and you shoot them like you did before. Other's with bow and arrows will pop up from the castle towers to try to ''Kill you'', but the idiot's just keep shooting there own people. You do this for, seriously, about an hour. After endless enemy killing, a switch appears near the castle door. Shoot it with an arrow, and the moat bridge appears, and you can cross it to enter the castle, and go to... You guessed it. Area-4. I have yet to complete this level. In here, you are in the castle, and you have no weapon. There are a ton of doors. When you walk up to one and press the button to open it, an enemy pops out, clubs you over the head, you die, and.. Game over. This is also when the men in white coats take you away while you are kicking and screaming something about killing robin hood. I am ASSUMING you are supposed to find the right door, and then move on to Area-5, but since when you get here you have wasted about all your lives, and the game gives no clues about where the right door is, I have no idea how you would do this. This is all that I know about this game. And I really doubt I'd spend the time to find out more.

Challenge: It's very hard, but in an un-fair and stupid way that makes you hate the game, more then keep coming back to it. I've found it close to impossible to get past Area-4, anyway, unless by pure luck.

Replay Value: I played this game a few times to try to figure it out, and little else. If you did dedicate enough time to Robin Hood to beat it, I highly doubt you would want to play it again.

Score Chart:
Graphics: 2 / 10
Play Control: 7 / 10
Music: 1 / 10
Sound Effects: 3 / 10
Story: 3 / 10
Gameplay: 3 / 10
Challenge: 7 / 10
Replay value: 2 / 10
Overall: 3 / 10

Final Word: Unless you are a die-hard collector of either, A: Old classic video games, B: Robin Hood, or C: Colecovision, I would advise staying away from this game. It really isn't worth paying anything for, unless for some reason you get it for free.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/02, Updated 10/27/02