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Having changed their name from Richard Wilcox Software, Elite's first title was this unusual arcade adventure. As Wilf, you must collect the 63 parts of a dragon amulet scattered through time. You must travel through the time zones to locate the parts, avoiding the kind of nasties associated with the different periods, for instance dinosaurs in prehistoric times and warriors from the Middle Ages. Quaintly enough 2001 is represented by a futuristic space age. How distant the new millenium must have seemed in 1984. A difficult, but imaginative and addictive game.

Prehistoric piffle

BULGING MUSCLES and a pair of wings makes Kokotoni Wilf one of the most unlikely heroes to fly into a game since the first space invader hatched from its egg above an earth base.

His mission, to find the lost pieces of an arcane amulet for the wizard Ulrich, is a serious affair in which he could be licked to death by a triceratops, zapped by a deadly egg or dropped on by a bat.

All those fates await the intrepid hero as he wings his way through several time zones and six lives in search of the fabled Dragon Amulet.

The graphics are as primitive as the dinosaurs which inhabit the upper levels of the game but the search, which can be compared with the search for drinking goblets in Jet Set Willy, is fun. Skill and cunning is required on the lower levels when Wilf encounters prehistoric alligators, swims through underground tunnels and gets hit by nocturnal seagulls.

Not having anything to fire at the monsters may put you off but for those who like to plan strategic play, and find a quiet corner of the screen, the game is excellent value.



John Gilbert


KOKOTONI WILF Memory: 48K Price: £5.95 Gilbert Factor: 6

KOKOTONI WILF
Elite / £5.95

Ross: Elite has taken the little white man out of the realm of the superhuman jumper and more into that of winged avenger; he's now a decidedly unheavenly- looking angel! Wilf can be made to move left, right or flap up the screen; the 'flap' key repeats so you don't have to wear out your keyboard.

Kokotoni Wilf is a game of 60 screens divided into six time zones. To progress from one to the next, you have to collect a number of flashing pieces of an amulet - and then find a time gate. Incidentally, Elite forgets to mention that you can start in any of the first three time zones by pressing keys '1-3' and then you'll find that all the objects on the previous levels will be credited to you.
Each screen consists of large fixtures like trees or dinosaurs (some of which may animate a little) and smaller, moving graphics. Tunnels and recesses have tended to replace the familiar platforms. The graphics aren't really up to Jet Set Willy standards and the difficulty I had controlling Wilf's spritely extravagances spoiled any appeal that the game had. 2/5

Dave: This is a reasonable game with above average graphics, but it gets annoying after a while because the controls are not precise enough. Elite advertise this as the successor to Jet Set Willy. It's good, but not that good! 3/5

Roger: Maybe 'Flapping Fred' would have been a better name, or perhaps 'Blundering Budgie', because our hero Wilf's mishaps can't all be blamed on Spectrum keyboard insensitivity. Shame 'cos there's enough screens to last a long time. 3/5

Ross 2/5
Roger 3/5
Dave 3/5

Ross Holman, Roger Willis, Dave Nicholls

Producer: Elite
Memory required: 48K
Retail price: £5.95
Language: machine code

Elite is the new company name for what was Richard Wilcox Software, who produced Blue Thunder. Kokotoni Wilf is their first release under the new name and is set, according to Elite's advertising, to match or best Jet Set Willy.

Kokotoni Wilf is the name of the hero in this multi-screened game with 63 locations, and you play Wilf himself. Legend has it that several hundred years ago in a province of Northern Europe there lived a Great Magician, who discovered that there had once existed a Dragon Amulet, fragments of which had been scattered throughout time. The Great Magician wanted to recover all the fragments, but by the time he had made the discovery, he was too old to undertake the mission himself. So he summoned his athletic protege, Kokotoni Wilf, gave him a pair of wings, and sent him off in search of the fragments. First of all, the Magician sent Wilf back more than 500 million years to a time when Dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The object of the game is to search for the various pieces of the amulet, which resemble glowing Stars of David, some 63 pieces, and then when all the pieces have been found and collected from one time zone, the Magician has enough strength to create a flashing timegate which Wilf must find and enter to get to the next time zone.

There are six time zones - 965BC, 1066, 1467, 1784, 1984 and 2001, and between 10 and 12 locations within each time zone, which are linked in a maze fashion. Each time zone has its own distinct graphics from the period. In the first there are dinosaurs, pterodactyls and saurians, etc. In 1066 there are Conquerors, long bows and warriors; alchemy makes an appearance next, followed by the Spanish main period. 1984 is represented by townscapes starting off with Trafalgar Square. And 2001, of course, is full of Moon stations, shuttles and space paraphernalia.

Wilf is controlled very simply by a left/right key and a flap wings key. He has no weapons, and must survive by avoiding the various obstacles and hazards which kill on contact. These tend to follow strict patterns of movement, left to right, up and down, travelling in a diamond shape and so on. As the time zones progress the amulet pieces are to be found in harder to reach spots. Exits from any location, which may be up, down or sideways, often lead into dead ends, or dangerous spots.

When Wilf has collected the fragments, he has to make his way back through the maze to a spot where the timegate will be flashing and run over it to enter the next zone. Elite are running a competition for the first 100 people to finish the game. On completion of the last screen a message is printed up telling the player why the Great Magician sent Wilf to recover all the pieces of the amulet, and it is this that Elite need to know for you to be a winner. The prize will be a free copy of their next game, the officially licenced version of the 20th Century Fox TV Series, "The Fall Guy".

CRITICISM
This is an odd game in that the further you get into the many different levels, the more playable and attractive it gets. Graphics on the first time zone are well drawn and move nicely, although there aren't many to give the average games player much trouble. Further on in the game this changes. Pieces of the amulet require much more skill to collect until the point is reached where even one or two pixels can mean the difference in collecting part of the amulet or losing a life. Graphics and use of colour improve as higher time zones are reached. You look like something from the clouds with the nice flapping wings, and you move smoothly and fairly quickly (about JSW speed) across the screen. This game has a fair amount of content, although the main thing is seeing the many different screens. Overall, a progressive skill type game with plenty to see and to do - worthwhile buying.

Yes, you are WILF! No ordinary Wilf but a very unordinary Wilf with wings! (Well, if you can have Wallies, why not Wilfs)? Elite seem keen to promote the comparison between Kokotoni Wilf and Jet Set Willy. Well it does have elements of JSW except that Willy jumps and Wilf flies. This does give a quite different feel to the game and it may be argued that strategical jumping is harder than floating around to collect things, but Elite have ensured that some of the amulet bits are very hard to get at indeed. Where it also resembles JSW a bit is in the way the time zones are like linked rooms of a maze complex, also that you have to ‘learn’ your way about each zone to avoid the nasties. I like the idea of having different time zones, because it means the graphics change with every screen and that adds to the addictivity. A good looking game, quite hard after the first screens, and very playable.’

‘Kokotoni Wilf is an excellent platform type game with maze overtones and lovely graphics. Wilf can fly (nice helicopter noise from his wings) and walk. He can also bang his head on the roof of a cave and get stuck in a crevice at the most awkward moments. The animation and design of the various hazards is very good. One thing you’re not told is that inanimate objects of certain colours kill you off if you bump into them — but I won’t say which as that would spoil the fun. It’s nice to be able to access all three of the first screens, because once you’ve mastered those you don’t want to have to keep wading through them again if you get killed off on a higher level. Overall, an enjoyable and addictive game I thought.’

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z/X left/right, 0 to fly — screens 1 to 3 may be accessed by pressing the appropriate numerical key
Joystick: none, but control keys are best anyway
Keyboard play: very responsive, well laid out
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: neatly detailed, varied, smooth pixel movement, generally very good
Sound: good flapping sound, overall a bit limited

Lives: 6
Screens: 63
General rating: a novel looking game which employs well tested routines to make it addictive in play.
Use of computer 82%
Graphics 88%
Playability 83%
Getting started 83%
Addictive qualities 83%
Value for money 85%
Overall 84%