Fantastic Dizzy

"One of the top 10 best games ever created."

Just to make something clear, I have not played any other Dizzy games and this was actually the first video game I ever played. Therefore it is possible as I try to make it appear better than what it is in the common eye of a regular gamer. I Have the speedrun record for this game, a little bit under an hour.

It all began on my sisters 7th birthday. She got a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in the US) along with this game. Me and my parents tried day and night to finish this game, it took as three days to get further than what is 2 minutes for me today.

You play as Dizzy a quite famous European '80s star. This game is an adventurer/Puzzler/platformer with the simple but yet so underrated object solving puzzles. For example in one section of the game you have to get past a few spikes and it is too far to jump. About a minute earlier you got a wooden plank. Put 2 and 2 together and you will realise that you'll have to place the plank there and walk across. That's what the puzzles are like in this game.

The plot is simple, Dizzy's love of his life, Daisy, is kidnapped by the mysterious and evil wizard Zak's. Your object is simple, to save her and bring peace to the land. Another problems as well is that all of Dizzy's friends have been put under a spell and you have to solve their problems to advance in the game.

During the game you have to collect 250 stars to be able to get into the tower where you rescue your love. Most of these you get along the way but a few of these you have to go to places that you think are useless.

During the game you will travel through a bunch of places with great variety of apperance and functionality.

One major thing I want to bring up as a positive thing about the game is the controls. The controls are pretty much the most simple you will ever find, using the 3 buttons on the Mega Drive/Genesis and the D-Pad you will get the hang of the controls very quickly.

There is really only ONE negative aspect I can think of and that is that the game lacks a save feature and since the game is really hard and long, especially when you play it for the first time and don't know what to do with all the objects. This lacking feature makes this game look really bad but after you get used to it and know what to do with the objects it won't bother you.

Story - 9/10 - Very simple and very nostalgic.

Graphics - 10/10 - This game is very colorful and the graphics are EGGcellent (pun intended since you play an egg) especially for being a Mega Drive/Genesis game.

Controls - 10/10 - As I said they are very simple.

Replayability - 10/10 - I have completed this game well over 30 times and I am not tired of it yet but I reckon this differs from person to person.

Final Thoughts:
This is, as I said, one of my favorite games ever. And also the game that has influenced me most as a gamer since it was the first video game I ever played. If you have already played other Dizzy games I suggest you check this out and if you haven't played any Dizzy games I also recommend you to check it out. To the common gamer I would suggest renting this game and if you like it you should probably buy it since you will play it more than once. The game is quite cheap and will be a great addition to your Genesis/Mega Drive Collection

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/09

Game Release: Fantastic Dizzy (EU, April 1991)